Sun.star essay: More cleaning up

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources is urging electoral winners to clean up the after-election mess, and clean up intelligently.

That is, prevent the clogging of the drainage, don’t just throw the messy stack into canals. The mess of ballot-like sheets was all over the hundreds of school rooms used as precincts, besides the tarpaulins in street walls swinging on electric wires in the roadside, and leaflets pasted in electric posts.

Mercado: Letter to his honor

WE VOTED for you Monday as the “lesser evil.” Thus, congratulations still stick in our craw. Sorry. One hosanna less shouldn’t matter when cheers hem you in.

“Victory has a thousand fathers,” John Kennedy noted after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. “But defeat is an orphan.” Rep. Tomas Osmeña reels from the trouncing you gave. He never lost an election since 1988. Now, he’s discovering that the sun rises without fail, even if he is not mayor.

Wenceslao: More poll surprises

Rep. Tomas Osmeña, who lost to reelectionist Mayor Michael Rama in the May 13 polls, said it well: when you keep on running, there’s always the possibility that you lose. Indeed, it wasn’t only the big guns like Osmeña and Reps. Eduardo Gullas and Pablo Garcia who suffered defeat in the recent political exercise. Lesser political lights got dimmed, too.

Daanbantayan Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot was finally defeated by perennial challenger Augusto Corro, ending her long-time control of the town’s politics.

Lim: The fallen

THE mighty have fallen. The stalwarts of traditional politics have been defeated. Even the bishops have been rejected by the electorate. Will they now stop harping on the myth of the Catholic vote?

Are the people finally practicing true patriotism? Frankly, I am shocked. I never thought I’d live to see the day the general population decided to vote according to their conscience. Are we finally thinking?

Oledan: Investment hype

DESPITE the upgrade in the Philippines' credit rating, it seems that whatever is the country's economic growth has failed to improve the lives of the people. The recent National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) report shows that the percentage of Filipinos living below the poverty line remained practically the same between 2006 and 2012.

Extreme poverty was pegged at 10 percent, or almost the same as the rate since 2006. Those considered as suffering from "extreme poverty" are families earning P5,458 monthly and are hard put to meet their basic food needs.

Tabada: The empty shelf

I ALWAYS have the same rite to mark the closing of summer: I go through my boxes of books.

It starts with a pretext: my sons are required to read the classics. I have yet to meet a teenager who will spend time with Homer and Shakespeare without demanding pizza, cappuccino with extra whipped cream or some emergency measure of resuscitation. Asking teen boys to search for my 30-year-old copy of “Hamlet” is sending them on a heroic quest without any expectation of an epic end.

Editorial: Adequate explanation needed

RELIEF was obviously what lawyer Edgardo Labella and his supporters felt Thursday night when the Cebu City Board of Canvassers finally proclaimed him as winner over Joy Augustus Young of the post of vice mayor in the May 13 elections. The count went down the wire and had Labella winning by only 184 votes over his rival.

Libre: Serging and Tomas

SO IT happened: Mike Rama beat Tomas Osmeña for Cebu City mayor. If there was someone who was most surprised, it must have been Tomas, who could not believe that one of his former underlings would defeat him.

Wenceslao: Congressional winners

ONE of the noisiest sites on Facebook in the last elections was Maghisgot Kitag Politika, Bay created by Anol Mongaya and Bino Guerrero. While the noise mostly came from alias-using supporters of opposing political groups, some identifiable names also posted opinions, like the now Manila-based Jesse E.L. Bacon II, formerly with The Freeman.

Nalzaro: Blaming the PCOS machines

BEFORE losing candidates, especially the “giants,” blame the precinct count optical scan (Pcos) machines for their debacle in last Monday’s elections, I would suggest that they go back to their “war rooms” and assess their campaign strategy and performance.

Barrita: Denial stage

DAGHANG mga higante sa politika sa Sugbo, ang uban kanila wa pa gyud makatilaw og pildi sa eleksyon, nga ngangapukan sa piniliay niadtong Mayo 13.

Usa na niini si Kongresista Tomas Osmeña sa habagatang distrito sa syudad sa Sugbo nga wa pa gyud mapildi sukad sa iyang pagsugod sa politika niadtong tuig 1988.

Carvajal: C-D crowd

A MATURING electorate was in evidence in some places in the last elections. Generally, however, the signs of maturity have been at best telltale and at worst conflicting and inconclusive. Sure we are pleased with computerization allowing people to vote for their own choice of candidates. But in the same breath we despair about the ambivalent quality of the choices.

Seares: What they complained about media in the last elections

RESOLUTION #9615, as amended, that implemented the Fair Election Act for the 2013 elections, enjoined media:

(1) “to scrupulously report and interpret the news, taking care not to suppress essential facts or distort the truth by omission or improper emphasis”:

Editorial: "How would change play out?

RESULTS of the May 13 polls in Cebu offer some interesting possibilities that could be good or bad for local government units and their constituents. With the defeat of the so-called political giants that lorded it over Cebu politics for years, new leaders have emerged. Change is in the air and that could be exciting or worrisome.

Roperos: Prelude to 2016

WHAT we have gathered from the media may not seem meaningful now or deeply significant in the light of the current acts or utterances of the candidates who emerged winners or losers in the elections. We may say that it is still too early to predict what happens in the coming years. But let’s have an overview anyway.

First, don’t tell me that when re-elected Mayor Michael Rama announced a possible revamp at City Hall, he had in his mind only the plan of making his work easier in the coming months. He must also be thinking of the potential political tussle in 2016.

Wenceslao: Davide’s win

YOU can’t fight city hall” is a phrase that sums up people’s experience in battling a bureaucracy. Urbandictionary.com defines the phrase this way: “it is useless to clash with a politician or establishment, or it is foolish to fight a battle you can’t win.”

“You can’t fight city hall” came to mind when I viewed the result of the May 13 gubernatorial race in Cebu. I thought that performance would trump the power of bureaucracy and a demonizing campaign. But the reality is, you can’t fight city hall, or should I say, Malacañang.

Malilong: Empowered electorate

IN AN illustrious political career that spans almost half a century, Cebu first district Rep. Eduardo R. Gullas has lost only once: in the Interim Batasang Pambansa elections in 1978 when the entire Kilusang Bagong Lipunan slate was wiped out by the upstart Pusyon Bisaya. That shocker was repeated last Monday in a reversal that has left many keen political observers still shaking their heads in disbelief.

Nobody gave Johnny V. de los Reyes serious consideration as challenger to Eddiegul.

Seares: Eddiegul and Tomas: conceding elections

Rep. Eduardo Gullas, who ran for Talisay City mayor, conceded the election. Rep. Tomas Osmeña, who ran for Cebu City mayor, has refused to concede.

Both are veteran politicians, titans in their field. Eddiegul's 38-year winning streak was snapped only this year. Tomas, also previously undefeated, fell only after 19 years in public office.

Libre: Dirty politics

MAYOR Michael Rama wants to move some department heads.

Toe the line or head for the exit.

Editorial: Change and maturity

IT'S tempting to say that Cebuano voters have matured by voting off political “giants” in the May 13 elections. The defeat of Tomas Osmeña in Cebu City and Eduardo Gullas in Talisay City and the paring down of the political influence of the Garcias in the province seem to signify that Cebuano voters finally want change.

Roperos: Election surprises

LET us just say that things do not always remain the same. Sometimes, they explode before our faces and force us to either interpret it as good luck or as bad luck. If the event favorably happens toward the sunny side of things, then we may say it was a lucky thing. If it is the opposite, then we may woe our bad luck.

Wenceslao: The Gullas debacle

HE ALWAYS runs scared. That was what Rep. Eduardo Gullas told reporters when asked whether his decision to reopen the tricycle drivers’ parking area in Barangay Tabunok in the middle of the campaign period for the May 13 polls was made because his rival in the Talisay City mayoral race, businessman Johnny V. de los Reyes (JVR), was gaining adherents.

Seares: Cussing, praising the PCOS

NOTHING was more cursed on election day and appreciated on election night than the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines.

Comelec expected a malfunction of 2 percent or 1,560 of 78,000 units all over the country. Chairman Sixto Brillantes said 200 or 300 conked out in last Monday's polls.

Espinoza: The silent majority has spoken

MANY of the results in the just concluded midterm elections could well land in Cebu’s history books as the upsets of the year. Some candidates, highly considered as unbeatable, lost to unknown or underdog candidates.

Rep. Tomas Osmeña, who ran again for city mayor to reclaim the rein of Cebu City Hall, lost to his former protégé, the re-electionist Mayor Mike Rama, by a small margin.

Editorial: Bigger giants

IT WAS inevitable. The surprising losses of Rep. Eduardo Gullas and Rep. Tomas Osmeña provoked many commentators into describing these veteran politicians’ rivals as giant-slayers. If the result stays unchanged for Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia, don’t be surprised if that term is applied to Provincial Board Member Wilfredo Caminero as well.

Roperos: Man vs. machine

A STEADY stream of reports starting on Monday up to early yesterday morning about some of the PCOS in polling precincts failing to function gave me a weird feeling that the machines are tools that are controlled by somebody else’s power. Indeed, there was that report about someone who inserted his filled-up ballot seven times into the machine. He did it the eighth time, and it functioned.

Wenceslao: End of the Tom O era in city

CALL the results of these elections as introduction to change. Big names have fallen or are about to fall. Rep. Tomas Osmeña in Cebu City. Rep. Pablo John Garcia in Cebu Province. Rep. Eduardo Gullas in Talisay City. Rep. Pablo Garcia in the second district. The Espinosas in Toledo City. Ma. Luisa Loot in Daanbantayan. Estrella Yapha in Pinamungajan.

Nalzaro: Giant-slayers

WHO says that Tomas Osmeña is unbeatable? He lost to his political protege turned archrival, reelectionist Mayor Michael Rama, by some 10,000 votes in last Monday's elections. This is Osmeña's first political setback since he joined politics upon his return here from the US in 1988. This shows that he is mortal and can be defeated.

Barrita: Osmeña’s defeat

CEBU City Mayor Mike Rama handed Rep. Tomas Osmeña his first loss in an election.

Rama was an Osmeña ally before they parted ways and his mentor turned his tormentor.

Obenieta: As long as the elected stands erect

LOOK over Facebook, and nothing could be more flagrant after making it out of the polls than photos of someone’s ink-stained finger poking like a flasher’s hard-on.

Modesty be damned, but we also realize that the right of suffrage is for adults only.