No more suggestions

A message was carried in the column of a distinguished writer last Sunday. It announced the fact that there is only one local chief executive in our city and that is Mayor Edgardo Labella, who is so brimming with ideas how to run the city that he needs no suggestion from non-mayors specially those friends of his in the media. According to the columnist, even those who walk and talk with the mayor (meaning his closest friends) or travel with him luxuriously in Asian cities (probably his business partners) just let him rule without interference. In other words, we Cebuanos should shut our mouths and keep whatever ideas we have on administering the city to ourselves. The message is loud and clear.

I like to fancy the thought that i am NOT one of those for whom the message was sent. My reason is that I remember having met the mayor only a few times in the recent past and those were fleeting moments made utterly forgettable by their insignificance and unimportance. Our first encounter was in an uptown plush hotel where Vice Mayor Michael Rama called me to join after the jolting canvassing of votes. I was one of the lawyers Rama engaged to represent Partido Barug, the political party he founded, in the election canvass. Acknowledging what little professional service we rendered for his political party, Rama wanted to demonstrate his gratitude. In that chance meeting, Mayor Labella was profuse in his thanks but i told him that while i voted for him, i did not have the opportunity to campaign for his candidacy. Just the same, in order to show also my appreciation for his gesture, I whispered that, if needed, I may, perhaps, be able to help campaign for him in 2022. The next occasion i remember seeing the mayor was during the inauguration of newly elected city officials which Rama, again, graciously invited me to attend. When the opportunity presented, i approached the mayor after his oath of office to congratulate him and wish him the best of luck in running the affairs of the city. But that was just about everything we shared in less than a minute of encounter. I had to excuse myself quickly from an atmosphere where some of the city’s high and the mighty were looking for his attention. My modesty demands that i should stay away from the circle of the mayor’s elite and powerful friends. To my recollection, there was no occasion that we conversed with the mayor rather lengthily. Believe it or not, i do not even know where in the city hall is the office of the mayor, a reason why i have not been there for a long stretch of time.

If the message to desist and refrain from making any suggestion to the mayor was intended for everyone, we should, by all reasonable means, politely heed. Let the focus of the mayor be not diverted by our impertinent suggestions. To confess though, there were few instances that i, in moments of exuberance, wrote in this column my humble thoughts on governance. Albeit late, I certainly apologize to the mayor for such extravagant transgressions. If only to atone for such useless interference, I will, as much as i really can, try to stop doing so henceforth. If along the way, I transgress his mayorship with boorish suggestions, I do so only with honest intentions.

There will hopefully be no more suggestions in this column for Mayor Labella. Promise. After all, the mayor knows everything that he needs to do.  Ideas from other ordinary citizens, especially those with political ambition, are, to him, useless surplussage. That message, to repeat, is very clear in the Sunday article I read. But, I will not be considered disobeying the message if I write, in hopefully rare times, my opinion on the things that the mayor may not be doing correctly. Having said that, henceforth, I will not as much as recommend what the mayor should do as to say that some of his declarations or moves are, in my humble view, flawed.

Here is one. It is incredible for Mayor Labella to say that we Cebuanos can expect his administration to plant and grow 1,000,000 trees every year of his mayorship and a total of 3,000,000 trees in his term. He declared this in the launching of his “greening” program last month, the fourth month of his first year as mayor. Reports mentioned that for maximum impact, he activated the entire city employee force of about 5,000 and the personnel of the 80 barangays and came up with having planted 50,000 trees. Mathematics was not my favorite high school subject but to me, it is well-nigh impossible to plant and grow 950,000 trees between now and June 2020, for the mayor to achieve what he extravagantly declared.

I like to believe though that my apprehension on this tree planting project is misplaced as my mathematical calculation is wrong so that Mayor Labella’s 3,000,000 trees for the city will materialize. [email protected]