To resign is an honorable thing to do

The reported walk-out of some high ranking officials of the Cebu City government is a blessing in disguise for the opposing aspirants for mayor of this city. I am referring to the news that few days ago, His Honor Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama called the department heads to a meeting where he was believed to have asked them for support in the coming electoral contest. That five such officers left the conference room after the mayor's exhortation provides a clear future course of action for the candidate who gets the mandate in the May polls.

It is possible that the mayor was not clear in his language, verbosity being his given trait. The toastmasters among my friends would like to label the preference of the mayor to use complex, as distinguished from simple, sentences, in a rather friendly nomenclature, as curtly as "his style".  At this late stage of the mayor's life, changing "his speaking style" is as seemingly impossible a task as teaching old carabaos new tricks. It must be in the context of his long-winded speech style that he was so unclear in his intention that he irreversibly set the atmosphere for some of his department heads to look for the exit, lest they commit administrative faux pas.

In attempting to understand the action of the department heads, here are some paradigms to think about. In times of doubt, a military man, on night guard duty, shoots before he asks. There is therefore a chance that consequent to his trigger-happy composure, he hits a comrade in that moment of uncertainty. But such casualty is acceptable compared to the risk of his inaction resulting in the enemies' over running his guard post.  A driver, on the other hand, who is unsure of what is ahead applies the brakes and delays his trip rather than run over and kill what might very well turn out to be a human being.

The city's department heads who virtually headed for the exit, could have failed to understand what the mayor wanted. This could be gleaned from the incessant flow of social media blogs, some of them coming from the concerned officials themselves. A sensible collation of their words would suggest that the mayor was probably unable to define his objective, for which reason he was misunderstood.      

Let us put to mind that these city officials are professionals. They were chosen to head their departments primarily for their academic credentials, qualification and competence. When they stepped into their public offices, they knew that they were barred from engaging in active politics. In other words, they could not campaign for any candidate without incurring electoral infractions.

Thus, when the mayor asked for their support, without spelling out in what terms, the department heads might have thought that they were to hit the campaign trail. Lacking the clarity of the kind of support he wanted, the mayor left it to his hearers how to interpret his call. Sadly, the interpretation, as I would have in a similar situation, would run afoul to their oath of office such that they were left with no alternative but to step out of the room.

But, that was good for the mayor and for his opponent. The lines of affiliation of these officials, while blurred by their professional positions, became very well observed by their action. The mayor now understands the deep seated sentiments of his department heads. When he is elected to a new term, he will know the people to form his officialdom. The reverse is equally true. If the mayor's opponent gets the electoral upper hand, he will also be able to identify the officials he can rely upon as well as those he may, if he can, replace.

Those officials who walked out from the mayor's meeting cannot be expected to side with the mayor's re-election candidacy. That is a fair conclusion from their walk-out caper. It will be honorable for them to relinquish their jobs which every more so often bring those to the office of the mayor. Having demonstrated their preference for the mayoralty challenger, they need to distance from the sitting mayor. It is only decent for them to resign from their posts.