What the marginalized vice mayor did
Many years ago, in a humorous speech competition of Toastmasters International District 75, comprising of the whole Philippines, Cebuano contestant Atty. Ernesto Limkakeng Jr., a Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), captured the championship with a brilliantly-written rollicking piece. I don’t remember his opening line because it didn’t register as funny as the whole speech humorously evolved. It went something like this: “Great things come from small packages.”
I recall the way Ernie developed his piece because I saw some parallel in the manner Vice Mayor Michael Rama conceptualized his own campaign in the barangays educating Cebu City residents on COVID-19 and how best to avoid getting infected. Of course, we know, from the column of Atty. Josephus Jimenez, that the vice mayor has been marginalized in City Hall. In the graphic language of Atty. Jimenez, there are glaring and unmistakable efforts to put Rama on the sidelines of the activities of the city government as if he is not part of the city administration. Why place Rama out of the public radar was a question that Atty. Jimenez did not attempt to answer. The lawyer-columnist would have been very informative.
For successive days, Rama visited all the 80 barangays on his own initiative and, if my information is correct, using his personal resources. Despite being reportedly marginalized by the city administration, he announced his presence as done in spirited support of Mayor Edgardo Labella. How humble. What teammanship! To the surprise of his audience, the vice mayor appeared in a peculiar way. Why peculiar? Rama came as an unusual “small package” in Ernie’s words. Mike was not the verbose speaker that we know him to be. He briefly spoke to the people only for the purpose of informing them why he brought a team with him. His kilometric speeches of the past were absent. He was direct to the point and, like Limkakeng, funny in introducing his companions Roy Kiamko as Coco Martin, Sonia Empinado as Claudine Barretto, Ian Hassamal as Ian Veneracion, and Inting Esmena as Enteng Kabesote. Rama’s unusual brevity and newly-found humor could be likened Limkakeng’s “great things”. Enthusiastic applauses followed him wherever barangay he went.
The efforts of the vice mayor’s office were both imaginative and enlightening. Rama conceived his campaign because as COVID-19 reached pandemic proportions, most city citizens learned of it only from impersonal newspaper reportage and television news programs. City health authorities were rather unprepared for the nature of the disaster. Early on, they were understandably busy in trying to establish the systems necessary to meet a horrifying calamity. Rama’s speakers, Kiamko and Empinado, possessed with appropriate Nursing education, opened the eyes of otherwise less-informed citizenry. In down-to-earth language, they explained what the virus is, how it is transmitted and what protocol to observe in order to avoid getting afflicted. Additionally, they also shared knowledge about polio and dengue.
The educational campaign done by the city vice mayor might be limited by how much marginalized he has been subjected to, yet, to me and perhaps to many, he did a salutary work of filing up the information void. If Rama thinks of repeating his performances, I like to believe that Atty. Limkakeng Jr., will want to contribute his DTM skills by joining the vice mayor’s team. I will be glad to be of help too.
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