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Thursday, February 12, 2004
Mongaya: Mayor’s performance
By Anol Mongaya
WHEN Kugi-Uswag Sugbo (Kusug) and former mayor Alvin Garcia endorsed radioman and columnist June Kintanar as replacement for then councilor Firmo Dayao, I thought this would pose a problem to his being a columnist of Sun.Star Cebu and Sun.Star Superbalita.
But things turned out fine. After Sun.Star editors conveyed to him our “conflict of interest” rule, Kintanar refrained from writing about city politics. He did not attack Mayor Tomas Osmena or praise former mayor Garcia.
Now that Kintanar has declared political war on the Garcias, the more should he follow this rule. He should continue to refrain from writing about city politics.
Meanwhile, his pronouncements in his recent press conference show he also has personal interests in provincial and national politics. His daughter is running for vice mayor in Argao under the camp of former congressman Junie Martinez. And he said his reason for jumping to the BO-PK is his loyalty to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
I have high regards for Kintanar, who is a family friend and an idol when I was still a student activist. I believe the journalist in him will prevail over his being a politician and thus he will also observe the conflict of interest rule in provincial and national politics.
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Mayor Tomas Osmeña promised to make Cebu City number one when he ran in 2001. Those who supported him should use this as barometer for his performance.
In 2002, we were still number two in the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP) that covered 50 cities nationwide. Last year, Cebu City dropped to number five. Marikina, Pasig, Davao and Makati passed us by. We shared the fifth spot with Las Piñas.
The mayor could not anymore attribute this dismal performance to the past administration. He should explain to the Cebuanos why, under his watch, Cebu City continued to slide down.
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Mayor Osmeña’s conflict with Sen. John Osmeña and his support for Rep. Tony
Cuenco has indeed created headaches for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s campaign handlers now that the campaign period for national candidates has started. And the wily mayor seems amused at the scenario.
But I won’t discount the cards up the sleeves of the equally cunning senator, who is supporting Cuenco’s rival Aristotle Batuhan. But it seems Cuenco has the upper hand because his alliance with the mayor has been tested in past political battles. Worse, the Batuhan camp has yet to unveil fresh non-trapo initiatives, making him vulnerable to charges of being a copycat.
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Capitol consultant Gwen Garcia’s call for her and Vice Gov. John-john Osmeña to take a lie detector test on the Perdido Lex issue should be pursued. Gwen finally spoke after John-john again accused her of allegedly framing him up.
I think this is a positive development for the Garcias because with this Gwen can take a more active role in media discourse being the gubernatorial candidate.
Because polygraph tests are not that fool proof, I think it is imperative that either the National Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, or both, should press on with the Perdido Lex probe so we would know the truth.
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Cebu Customs police chief Isidro Estrera scored against smugglers with the seizure of a 40-footer van containing luxury vehicles that was about to be released this week. According to my sources, this is the second incident in weeks that the customs police stopped so-called “swing operations” at the Cebu International Port (CIP). Two weeks ago, smugglers did not push through with their plot to spirit out another van reportedly claimed by the same consignee because of the vigilance of the customs police.
(e-mail: superbalita@ sunstar.com.ph or anol_cebu@hotmail.com; text: 0917-9761193)
(February 12, 2004 issue)
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