EDITORIAL - Loyalty has no place in politics

A former appointive official of Cebu City has written newspapers to decry former elective officials who, after getting elected with Serging Osmeña, eventually left to run against him. He branded these officials as people with no sense of gratitude.

The former appointive official is, of course, entitled to his own opinion. But his opinion is what precisely gives politics such a bad name. Those who harbor this opinion seem to subscribe to the notion that public office is a fiefdom that demands loyalty for certain politicians.

Such an opinion runs counter to the democratic principle that all authority emanates from the people. It is not Serging Osmeña who elected these officials as even he himself had to court the people for their votes in order to gain their mandate.

In other words, the elective officials who ran with Serging Osmeña were in virtually the same boat as he was. They, too, courted the people for their votes and mandate. These elective officials may have run with Serging Osmeña but he did not vote them to office. The people did.

Of course, it may have helped that they ran with Serging Osmeña. But public office is a contract between the official elected and the people who elected them. The officials with whom you run with have absolutely no claim to your contract with the people.

Besides, it is the essence, and one of the strengths of democracy, that people are vested with the right and the power to choose their officials and representatives. You can call it any way you want, but sticking forever together deprives people of the right and power to choose.

Maybe the contention of loyalty gains some credence only because Serging Osmeña appears to be well loved by many Cebuanos. But that is merely circumstantial. What if Serging Osmeña had been someone else? Would it be any less deplorable if his men left him nevertheless?

The best officials are not those who band together right or wrong but those who, regardless of the company they find themselves in, still manage to fulfill their contracts with the people. This should be the measure of all politicians. Loyalty has no place in politics.