Branching away from Osmeña politics

In a column I wrote early last month, I tried understanding the value of a two party system of American politics. These are the Republicans and Democrats. The fact is that these two parties dominate US elections. The little I have learned from the internet is that the Republican philosophy leans more towards individual freedoms, rights and responsibilities while in contrast, Democrats attach greater importance to equality and social/community responsibility. The intense pursuit of the two regularly opposing Republican and Democrat political thoughts makes American politics dynamic that attempts to form such third parties as the Libertarian, Constitution, Green, Natural Law and Reform Parties have either been stymied or lethargic. I reported though in that June column that the Libertarian Party, the more active American third group, has selected Chase Russell Oliver as its presidential bet in the coming US presidential elections.

I made that observation in my humble attempt to paint a different political scene in our city since the grant of Philippine independence on July 4, 1946 (what a coincidence as today is July 4) by America thru the Hare-Hawes-Cutting and the Tydings-McDuffy Acts.

I said then that there have been NO two political parties espousing different principles hereabouts. The seeds of political thoughts appeared to be sowed ONLY by the Osmeña family, mainly former Senator Sergio “Serging” Osmeña Jr. Serging surged to power despite the derogatory claim that he was a Japanese collaborator in the second world war. Even with that supposed stain in his name, he was heralded as Nino Bonito, an unchallenged king pin of sort, in Cebu politics.

There were men who worked in his shadows and fleetingly took the city mayorship. I recall such learned people as Atty. Carlos Cuizon, Atty. Mario Ortiz, Atty. Luis Diores, Engr. Eulogio Borres and Atty. Ronald Duterte. Their individual brilliance was, however, blunted by the doctrinaire imposition of Serging’s political philosophy. They were surrogates of Sen Osmeña, Jr., so to speak. Dr. Florentino Solon, a man of otherwise different political mind, proved to be a good mayor but he was more perceived as an attempt of the Marcos’ martial law to put a different hue to the military regime among Cebuanos. Mayor Jose Cuenco, being only an OIC, did not have enough time to show his leadership worth.

Tomas de la Rama Osmeña, became city mayor and really stepped into the shoes of his father, Serging. Naturally, he kept the Osmeña political philosophy intact. Succeeding mayors in Atty. Alvin Garcia and Atty. Michael Rama, began their careers suited in Bando Osmeña colors and continued to promote the Osmeña mind.

This political scene in Cebu City is, to say the least, sad. Our city is home to many bright minds. To cite one indicator, we need only to read the results of licensure examinations. Almost always, the top 10 finishers include Cebuano names necessarily not related to the Osmeñas. In another point, men and women leading the country’s giant private corporations are Cebuanos without Osmeña blood in their veins, no offense to this honorable family name. Cebu bred accountants, architects, doctors, engineers, lawyers and other professionals with different family names are acknowledged to be the top practitioners of their professions. Yet, none of them is seen involved in the elective service to the people.

Cebuano politics does not benefit from the wisdom of these gifted professionals. The brilliant people I refer to dare not attempt to offer themselves to elective positions because we Cebuano electors are conditioned to vote for candidates educated in the Osmeña political thought. Our collective challenge is to push the bright people in our midst to seek elective position and support them with no other objective than to reinvent the city governance.