Cebu City needs an excellent leader, not a “trapo”

Considering the multiple and complex problems besetting our premier city today, which used to be the true and original Queen City of the South, I strongly submit that its chief executive should be more of a managerial genius, rather than your usual traditional politician. We do not need a trapo who over-promises during the campaign period, and then under-delivers thereafter. Cebu City is an overgrown urban center which is unable to cope well with the overwhelming demands of a runaway population, beset with too many people in too limited spaces, having the consequential maladies of horrendous traffic and stinking garbage, has many beggars and street urchins and floods whenever rains and thunderstorms come. Cebu City is fast becoming another Metro Manila, another urban center that has miserably failed in urban planning.

We need a mayor who has the vision to transform the city and its environs into a modern and humane habitat worthy of our youth. A leader who can rally various peoples and groups to unite around a common purpose beyond politics. A leader who can motivate Cebuanos across political boundaries and inspire them to build a just and nurturing environment, clean, and green, a city we can all be proud of. A competent, committed and conscientious manager who can plan strategically, organize with his counterparts in Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, and Talisay. A firm and decisive manager who is focused on the goals with a sense of urgency, but one who is truly inclusive and pro-people and who does not exclude some sectors based on partisan and parochial distinctions.

The problems are too many to be left to any inexperienced trapo who just loves to show off, but is incompetent given the seemingly insurmountable odds in leading people and managing the city. The problems of narrow and poorly-maintained roads, with a lot of potholes and wide cracks, exacerbated by undisciplined drivers and jaywalking pedestrians call for a city manager who is hands-on and not an ivory tower politician. The stinking public toilets, the lack of discipline among the people, the worsening floods and drainage, the poorly maintained sewage systems, the streets that are overcrowded, with too many homeless and “grasa people” who sleep in the sidewalks and throw their waste all over the place. To address all these, we need a no-nonsense results-oriented leader, an excellent technocrat, not a political mammal.

The politicians, both those in the majority and minority, should spend their time forging a series of consensus to put back Cebu City back to its old stature as the only city that can give Manila a run for its money. The leader should have a strategic plan and program to heal the city of its ills, to unite rather than fragment the people. We need a mayor who is results-oriented, but who does not unnecessarily antagonize others, including his partymates and opponents too. We need a mayor who ceases to be a politician once he is sworn into office. We long for a leader who is big enough to stand up to the outrageous demands of the powerful, but small enough to listen to the grievances of the powerless. We need a leader who can fight the drug lords without resorting to EJK. Yes, we need one without baggage, one fresh and unblemished virgin.

We are fed up with traditional politics; we need a new face with a heart and a mind that understands the myriad of mysteries in the very challenging task of rebuilding a city which is fast losing its soul.