Stop waving the youth card
There is a tendency within the city's political circles to conveniently portray the recent spat at the Regional Development Council as a battle between the young "idealistic" guards and the old "traditional" guards.
As reported in the papers last week, Cebu City north district Rep. Raul del Mar walked out of the meeting of the RDC Central Visayas after it did not approve projects he pushed for Cebu City.
The RDC, chaired by furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue and assisted by RDC infrastructure development committee head Glenn Soco, instead endorsed funding for a feasibility study of the said projects despite Del Mar stating that the feasibility study is ongoing.
A dejected image of Del Mar walking out of that meeting seems unimaginable years back and even today. He, after all, represents one of the most important districts of Cebu in terms of population and economic impact. He earned his mandate, and until that expires noon of June 30, 2019, there is a reasonable expectation that his office be given some measure of deference.
The point of Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, however, is valid, at least on its face. He is right in saying that Cebu's politicians, pointing to Del Mar's ally Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who promptly came to the congressman's defense, should be open to bright and fresh ideas from younger individuals. "Younger people who do not have any vested interest, but the only interest is to look after what is best for Cebu," Garcia said.
I have doubts with the last statement, however. The present younger crop of RDC-7 officials led by Cobonpue and Soco did not come into their own positions clean as a whistle. As Osmeña has said, they are affiliated with the president's assistant in the Visayas, Michael Dino, whose hands are accused of busily shifting the levers of influence and support in Cebu's political landscape.
Whatever the case may be, the high-profile disagreement among our officials and policy makers is a sad development. Cebu's public infrastructure sector remains critically in catch-up mode with the island's changing demographics and the pressing demands of economic growth.
Proof of that development gap that I myself saw was when I sat one time in a meeting between a foreign investor and a local real estate developer. The investor was surprised when he was bluntly told by the local developer that the sector is awash with money and a big credit line. It was another way of saying, "We don't need your money."
It goes to show that anyone today, be it government or the private sector, can be assured of a high return of their investments in public infrastructure because of the brighter economic outlook.
Yet billions of pesos are still lost every day because of traffic; and massive opportunities continue to be wasted because of a general deficit in infrastructure which if it were promptly in place already would have facilitated more economic activity and better service to the public.
It is, thus, disheartening to see our government officials and the private sector representatives in a public tug of war on who has the better solutions to our problems. Sadder is when the discourse is framed as a battle between the young guards and the old guards.
My naïve wish is that I hope we find it in our hearts, for the good of Cebu, to settle our differences and try to reach a compromise -or at least, even if we cannot afford to agree, give due respect to each other's mandate.
Cebu City North District Rep. Del Mar has always comported himself well with reason and prudence. That he walked out of that RDC meeting tells a lot about how he is being treated in a development body where his voice is supposed to be given importance.
Stop waving the youth and idealistic card, please. It does not repeal a mandate earned through election by the people no matter how imperfect our democracy is.
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