Balance

According to the story's title in this newspaper, the appointment of a new councilor to the Cebu City Council will bring "balance" to the local legislature. That the word balance itself was wrapped all around in quotation marks suggested it had to be taken with a grain of salt.

Normally, balance is a good thing. Anything that has balance has stability, sure footing. In accounting, it means all the figures are in order. In natural science, it means there is harmony on earth. In mental health, it means a person can think clearly, for himself and for others.

Alas and alack, in politics it means anything but. For a highly-politicized city like Cebu City, a balanced city council, which in this paper's story is qualified as both warring political parties, the BOPK and the Barug Team Rama, having exactly nine members each, means nothing will ever get done.

Of course, those speaking for either party, reacting to the appointment of Erik Espina as new member of the council to replace James Cuenco who has been ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman, all make it appear as if striking a balance in numbers is a most normal thing, something that must be welcomed, or at least graciously accepted.

But the reality is that a balance of forces in a contentious, if not acrimonious, atmosphere is the best guarantee there is of a stalemate in almost everything, in which case the vice mayor may be called to break an impasse more frequently than he should as the presiding officer of the city council ought to be free to steer the legislature to a clear and uncluttered direction.

The appointment of Espina itself, by no less than President Duterte, is pregnant with meaning. Espina is the son of the late former Cebu governor and senator Rene Espina. Without meaning anything other than a plain statement of fact, politics for this particular Espina family came and went with Rene.

Duterte could have picked a more "familiar" name that present Cebuanos can quickly come to grasp with. But not only is Duterte a Cebuano, this "old dog" in grassroots politics knows Cebu politics as well. To those too young to know, Rene Espina was a mortal enemy of Serging Osmeña, the father of incumbent mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Rene as governor and Serging as mayor famously tangled in a live radio debate decades ago (no live television then) over the North Reclamation Area, Serging was determined to build and Rene determined to block. That the NRA now exists shows who got his way eventually. With the Espina name back to bring "balance" to a divided council, who knows what fate awaits the city.

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