Politics is the art of compromise

It’s exactly a week since the May 13, 2013 mid-term elections and while most of the counting is over and done here in Cebu Province, unfortunately, thanks to the still highly controversial Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, there are still millions of votes to be counted or accounted for and this is exactly my beef about the PCOS machines.

But then, this is not an interview or a talk about the PCOS machines… what my special guest, Dr. Leilani Echavez-Paredes columnist of Sunstar Daily and I intend to do is come up with a postscript of the 2013 elections and give you an analysis of the outcome of the polls… why this candidate won and why did that candidate lose? So please watch this very interesting interview on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00pm tonight with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and replays on My TV M-W-F.

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No matter what Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes may boast about the PCOS machines… the fact remains that that he proclaimed the top six senators even if the official canvass only revealed 72 out of 304 certificates of canvass (COC). Brillantes said in a boastful manner, “Prove to me that any of the first six will be removed from the 12, I guarantee it won’t happen. I will resign if any of them gets dropped from the 12.”

In my book, no Comelec chairman should be issuing guarantees while only 72 out of 304 COCs have been counted… unless Mr. Brillantes already knew before hand what really was the outcome of the 2013 elections? These boastful statements by the Comelec Chairman just give a bad taste especially when the Automated Election System (AES) watch is questioning the slow count of the PCOS machines. Ask the Comelec Chairman whether the counting is already over or not. So if it is not yet over, why did he proclaim the top six? Why was he in so much hurry to proclaim these senators?

At this point, I can sense a brewing cauldron within the halls of the Comelec because once again, the PCOS machines have failed to deliver as advertised. Honestly, I’m just about sick and tired with the Comelec that refuses to listen to technocrats who know better about information technology and computers. I dare say that we should now come up with a group or movement that would oppose the use of the PCOS machines for the 2016 elections. We still have time to form this group and hopefully it would catch fire and become a nationwide organization.

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I must say that our May 15th column that we entitled “Cebuanos have spoken, Tom, you’re Fired!” is on record perhaps the most widely read column that I have ever written in The Freeman in recent memory. Just about wherever I go… people greet me with “Bobit… great column… You’re Fired!” Of course this was accompanied with some jubilation that Mayor Mike Rama won over Tommy Osmeña. But honestly, I told them quite frankly that it is not that these people wanted Mayor Mike Rama to win, rather they wanted Tommy Osmeña to lose.

Last Friday evening, our old barkada the “Syo’s” had a birthday dinner for our good friend Banker Ven Martelino who turned 60 years old last Saturday. Over dinner, someone threw the question who voted for Tommy and who voted for Mike. A quick count showed that in our group of 13 guys, only 2 people voted for Tommy Osmeña. The rest voted for Mayor Rama.

Now our group always respects each other’s opinion; however we never got together before the elections… so there was no way we could tell who would be voting for which mayoral candidate. Then someone threw in another question… was this the first time that they did not vote for Tommy Osmeña? Apparently, the majority agreed.

At this point, many people are already asking me whether Mayor Mike Rama and his Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella can effectively rule the City of Cebu given the fact that the majority of the Councilors still belong to the Bando-Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK). I honestly cannot predict anything. For sure, it would take some kind of political mastery for Mayor Rama to be able to get those BO-PK councilors to support his programs. Lest you already forgot… politics is the art of compromise.

One thing is sure… things are going to change in Cebu City Hall where for 20 years, we were literally under “one-man rule” as the majority of our councilors were mere “yes” men to the mayor. I dare say that it is a time for statesmanship… where the majority in the councilor can still come up with programs with the minority for as long as we Cebuano constituents would benefit from these programs. So the name of the game for Mayor Rama and Vice-Mayor Labella is to reach out to their former BO-PK party mates, because almost all of them belonged to this party in the past.

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