EDITORIAL — A too-far-off dream

By taking his oath of office before the Department of Interior and Local Government the other day, Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia officially became city mayor.

And to confirm his own policies, he said he was abandoning the city’s branding to be Singapore-like, something pushed for by suspended mayor Michael Rama.

“Maybe that is one of the things that I would discontinue, kanang Singapore-like. Because I want Cebu City to have its own identity. Cebu City is not Singapore and in fact we have been longer, as a civilization, compared to Singapore,” said Garcia.

Yes, it’s about time we stop pursuing this dream. It was really a tall order. It wasn’t just a Singapore-like Cebu vision after all. It was a Singapore-like Cebu with Melbourne features.

And the ordinary people knew this. In fact they poked fun at such a lofty dream when even simple problems like flooding and garbage cannot be solved. “Singapool-like Cebu” they said whenever it flooded downtown, or “Singapoor-like Cebu” when trash wasn’t collected again.

It’s not that we can’t eventually have a sparkling-clean Cebu City with top-notch infrastructure, no flooding or garbage problems, and a populace that is mostly gainfully employed and contributing to society, but any dream we chase should be grounded on reality. And the reality of a Cebu City practically becoming like Singapore or Melbourne isn’t going to happen in a generation or two. Or three or four or five.

And this is because right now we don’t yet have what the people of Singapore and Melbourne have; discipline on the part of the people and political will on the part of officials. The discipline to follow the local ordinances and laws and to take care of what infrastructure we have, and the political to impose policies as opposed to accommodating political favors, among other forms of regulation and self-regulation.

Note that we are saying “yet” because this discipline is something we eventually hope to learn.

Again, we keep saying that rather than chase a dream that seems too far off, we should strive to make Cebu City the best version of itself. Never mind chasing Singapore or Melbourne.

If we can do this and make Cebu the best version of itself then perhaps even other cities around the world will draw inspiration from us. Then they will strive to become Cebu City-like.