One day in the last week of December 2015, the residents of Sitio Baugo, Barangay Paril, a mountain barangay of Cebu City, heartily gave little contributions in order to celebrate a simple Christmas party. Baugo is a small community mostly composed of farmers and agricultural traders, majority of whom are related by blood. In my count, there are about 20 houses in this village.
I arrived in Baugo shortly before noon that day and immediately I saw a vivid demonstration of the famous bayanihan spirit. The sight was something to behold. Men, women, senior citizens, and youth, in performing diverse functions like cooking their local menu, fixing a makeshift table, providing entertainment and preparing utensils, and so forth and so on, were like members of an orchestra rendering a classical composition. The only missing part was the "maestro'. There was no one in particular who was managing the whole affair. Everybody just did what needed to be done with no orders barked and only magic words were said.
Frankly, while I wanted to immerse myself into one of the necessary activities, I did not know what to do. Talk of a square peg put on a round hole? That was my situation. There was no work that I could handle with ease and comfort. Ironically, the only thing I could meaningfully do was the most menial of all tasks - sweeping the area together with other persons who were more adept with the broom.
The men in my group (there was a senior citizen like me and a vocal young man) talked about politics, a topic that I thought was closer to my heart. To remove any possible source of discomfort on the part of the work partners, I pretended to be more interested on ridding the place of every bit of garbage than on the topic even if, honestly speaking, I strained my ears each time the discussion came to a drawl. What I learned was most revealing!
From their exchange of thoughts, I realized that they pitched different political camps in the 2013 elections. One served as a sitio leader of Team Rama and the other was a worker of the BOPK. While remaining friendly with each other, they were hard line competitors serving their opposing candidates. Their having come from a common bloodline did not, in 2013, deter them from sniping into each other's camps.
Yet, I found out that they have promised to join their forces in the coming May 2016 polls. They are no longer going to stand as opponents nor support adverse political contenders. Rather, they will unite their efforts to advance the candidacy of His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama. Here are two reasons they expressed why they are all for the administration, a term they used to refer to the political party of the city chief executive:
First. Before the incumbent got elected mayor of our city, Baugo was a distant place to travel to. Well, they did not take word "distant" in its literal meaning and I could not disagree. Factually, from the gate of my house to Baugo, there are just about 22 kilometers to negotiate. The men in my group wanted to say that it was difficult to reach Baugo years ago because the road condition was terrible. When it rained, it was unimaginably muddy and on sunny days, jagged rocks dotted all over the road.
They were speaking the truth. Indeed, the day when I went to Baugo, there was only one car left for my use at home. It was a Mercedes Benz. I did not hesitate to use it because ninety eight percent of the way is paved with concrete. The road may not be as wide as an American inter-state highway, but Mayor Rama saw to it that its condition is safe and comfortable.
Second. The men-sweepers in my group revealed in their conversation that the mayor poured millions of pesos to the barangay. It was a thing that did not happen in previous administrations. The barangay officialdom had enough funds, courtesy of the city, to prosecute their own projects. Because village officials know better what their constituents need, the leeway given to them to choose what projects to invest on was (still is) the good practice of the Rama administration
Had I missed the Christmas party, I would not have learned how these villagers, at least in Baugo, have shaped their minds for the May 2016 elections.