Why Cebuano leaders are silent

I want to be kind to our president even if he does not need it. The helluva flak that President Rodrigo Duterte has been lately getting for cowardly distancing from a debate that he himself proposed is already humiliating beyond description. In that spirit of kindness, I will call the challenge to a debate that he hurled against former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio as merely lapsus linguae.  Nothing more.  It was the fault of his ascerbic tongue to have dared to a verbal tussle someone obviously superior to his comparably mediocre mind. The phalanx of incredibly dishonest statements he and his shameless minions issued in an attempt to justify the president’s withdrawal from what would have been a ghastly verbal massacre seem to indicate that the office of the country’s chief executive is sadly occupied by an errant mind. That the president’s tongue merely faulted is my kinder description of his worrisome situation.

There are more commentaries written by respected opinion makers that have become rather vituperative against the president’s withdrawal from debating with the Justice. I can detect their numbers grow exponentially compared to those trying to defend him. The topics of known TV sitcoms are no different. Some have even couched their language in vitriolic tenor. This is also true to some well-known broadcasters. Oh my goodness, their language is getting increasingly critical of the president and their bitterness is noticeable. More so, in the social media. Admittedly, I had not scoured the internet more than what i did the last few days and what I found is not palatable to President Duterte. In my observation of the emerging national sentiment, (and I hope I am wrong) Duterte’s credibility is grossly eroded, his popularity, starkly marginalized and his leadership, monumentally failing.

Against that vociferous background, I have observed a deafening silence among our local political leaders. While, on one hand, I expect those aligned with Duterte to say something to shore up the president’s sagging image, I hear nothing from them. In the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, Mayors Edgardo Labella, Jonas Cortes and Junard Chan have wisely stayed away from the proverbial fire. I am sure that they would want to rally behind the beleaguered president, after all, they actively sought his endorsement in the 2019 elections when Duterte enjoyed high trust ratings. Who will doubt that a more eloquent Mayor Labella can, in so far as Cebu City residents are concerned, better prop the president’s position than a loquacious Sec. Roque?

On the other hand, their perceived political opponents have not been heard to utter a word to take advantage of the president’s distressed situation. Former mayors Tomas Osmeña, who dons his father Serging’s Liberal Party colors, Luigi Quisumbing of the Nationalist People’s Coalition and Paz Radaza of the Lakas CMP, have held their tongue, for reasons unknown to most of us. Their leadership profile could have earned more points had they joined the noisy fracas. For instance, Osmeña, who was publicly threatened with a slap on his face by Duterte during the campaign could have sneered at the president’s withdrawal from the debate with Carpio as utter cowardice. But he chose to be silently honorable.

There is substance to the social distancing of our local politicians from the presidential woes. This is their recognition of the tailspin of Duterte’s mass appeal. It is more than Thomas Carlyle’s admonition “silence is golden.” Indeed, in times like the present, when Duterte is on the receiving end of vicious criticisms, the discretion of our local leaders to be silent could be more important than their eloquence.