Calling on the Chamber of Commerce people
I like to believe that most, if not all, elected leaders of our country have the highest interest of their constituencies in their minds. That counts among their corps His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña. The mayor can claim that the interest of Cebuanos ranks first and foremost in his heart every time he wields his authority. When in so many chosen words he seemed to drive a universal bank out of this city, Cebuano interest was the apparent motivation.
In the same vein, I also hope that our mayor shall admit that he does not have the monopoly of love for Cebu City. Many other residents, though not as fanciful as he is, think in terms of our best interest in their individual endeavors and act accordingly. These people may not agree with the mayor's belligerent attitude against the universal bank but, it does not mean that in assuming such an opposite mind frame, their motivation is selfish or worse, they are wrong.
In my column last Thursday, I took the privilege of recommending to the mayor that he should put aside his arrogance and seek the counsel of the city's respected academicians in reviewing his warlike stance directed at the financial institution. Perhaps he can, by conferring with USC President in Fr. Miranda, UV Vice President Dr. Jose R. Gullas, Atty. Augusto Go of UC and Mr. Roberto Aboitiz, get a fuller, maybe better, view of the situation than shooing the bank away from our city.
That article drew a reaction from a friend, an elderly engineer, who approached me while I was sipping coffee at a shop near the school where I teach Law. According to him, I might be wrong to assume that the mayor would put the highest of Cebuanos in his decisions. He premised his thought on the historical fact that in the dark days of Martial Law, the sitting mayor, rather than immerse with us in our struggle against a dictatorship, chose to wallow in the luxury of staying in a foreign land. Living in the US then only served his own selfish interest.
It looks like engineer was correct. Newsmen who covered the initial court hearing of the case filed by the universal bank indicated that the mayor has stuck to his stubborn self in imagining that he knows better than everyone else including the respected men in the academe I mentioned in my column. That he would not welcome an adverse opinion seemed certain.
Let me attempt to decipher why the mayor refuses to listen to the wisdom of reputable personalities in our midst. There is this distinct possibility that he fears listening to men more learned than he is for such an intellectual encounter might expose his deficiency. Insecurity, indeed, has a special way of removing the chance of unwise people meeting the profound ones.
Given his reluctance to hear from men who are heads and shoulders above him, the mayor may be open to consider the views of the men and women in the Chamber of Commerce who, in their daily activities, deal with banks and other financial institutions. In fact, I suggest that the chamber exert all efforts to meet the mayor. I am sure they understand the specter of a situation when a bank closes shop not for any cause the Central Bank deems prejudicial to the public. They can show to the mayor the serious repercussions of his rather unwise move.
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