We need a governor like Gwen Garcia, who has the "balls" to defy Imperialistic Manila and has the guts, the grit and angst to wave the flag of local autonomy. We need a dragon lady in the capitol. We need a mayor like Mike Rama who has the vision and the courage to go out of the box and do the unorthodox just to serve the people. Mayor Mike sacrifices his personal beliefs in the name of what is good for Cebu City.
Cebu and other LGUs don't need local chief executives who only excel in politics but fail to lead the province and the city to a higher level of greatness and excellence. Governors and mayors should have a vision, translated into action plans, with timetables and budgets. Some governors and mayors I know focus all their time, energy and emotions on politics. They spend all their time politicking, persecuting their enemies, kicking out casuals and Jo workers who support their opponents. They forget that they have a province or a city to lead and manage. They are leaders first and foremost, and only politicians during the campaign period.
They should choose their people well and avoid too many political advisers and no technocrats to transform their promises into specific projects. Some winners are so enamored with their victory that they spend too much time celebrating their electoral winnings. Many are counting contributions that are unspent and never reported in their SOCEs. Others spend a lot of time punishing their detractors and persecuting their political enemies. Still others focus their energies in running after LGU employees who were suspected of sleeping with the enemies. They should have nobler intentions than petty and parochial whims.
If they are good leaders and not just greedy, self-centered trapos, they should have a vision, a long range plan for the city and the province. What should Cebu look like ten years from now? What visible and invisible changes should we see twenty years from now. What should be our gross revenue and per capita income of our people after two decades or so. While they look at the progress of the province and city as an LGU, they need to be mindful of the quality of life of the constituencies. They need to look at job opportunities, the rise of small and medium scale enterprises and micro industries. They should stop being used by giant conglomerates who own malls and big businesses.
Mayors and governors should stop measuring their successes on the basis of how many SM and Gaisano and Robinson Malls are put up in the cities. They should look at the poor vendors and micro entrepreneurs who are being dislocated by these mega business empires. Although business taipans are huge campaign funders, there should be limits to pandering to the whims of big business. The great LGU leaders think of the small guys. That is why Dumaguete City and Naga City in Bicol are very zealous on the entry of giant businesses that only marginalize the small and struggling entrepreneurs. For this reason, the late Jesse Robredo was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public service.
Governors and mayors should solve the flooding, the garbage, the water shortage, the proliferation of beggars, prostitutes and street urchins. They should go around the city and see for themselves the dirt, the foul smell and the horrendous traffic. They should be ashamed of themselves for being the number one citizen of a province or a city which pretends to be one of the richest, and yet with the poorest people, with the dirtiest streets, and with floods and garbage inundating the environment with purveyors of the next pandemic.
LGU executives should not point fingers to national agencies on the problems of unemployment, poverty, homelessness, public health, and livelihood. Because of the Mandanas ruling, they get huge slices of public funds. To whom more is given, much more is expected. They should stop being parochial, myopic and short-sighted. And they should prepare the province and the city for the next pandemic and the next natural calamity. Elections are done.
Cebu Has the best of both worlds: the defiant dragon lady in the Capitol, and the loyal and abiding lamb in the city hall. They are hot and cold, sweet and sour, salt and pepper, the good guy and the "bad" guy.