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Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Malilong: For a sober exchange
By Frank Malilong
The Other Side
It’s a curse, this propensity to impute ulterior motives on anyone who takes an opposite view especially on something we dearly hold. Why can’t we summon enough humility to consider the possibility that our position could be wrong and the other could be right?
I just read, for example, a quote in a news item from a resolution of the Municipal Council of Aloguinsan opposing the bill filed by Cebu 3rd District Rep. Antonio Yapha Jr. to create a new province out of his district. “(The) action is just a manifestation of his ambition to remain in public office as would-be governor of Occidental Cebu.”
How judgmental can we get?
I am strongly opposed to any move to dismember the province of Cebu but I do not believe that those who are for it love the province less than I do or are that they are in it for the wrong reasons.
We cannot always be suspicious of each other. Somehow we have to learn to trust that other people – even politicians – are imbued with equal love of country, province and people that we profess to have. After all, nobody can claim that he has a monopoly to patriotism.
Cebu 2nd District Rep. Simeon Kintanar Jr., who along with Yapha and 4th District Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez form the triumvirate behind the move to subdivide Cebu, has dared Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to a debate on the merits of the proposal. The governor has accepted the challenge.
I look forward to a sober and intelligent, if spirited, exchange. That is how it is done in more enlightened democracies. Let’s stick to the issue. Would the existence of four provinces, instead of just one, be good for Cebu and the Cebuanos? There is no room for childish remarks in the discussion of an issue as important as the breakup of the premier province in the country.
In a recent visit to Cebu, Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. said that he is opposed to the creation of new (and smaller provinces) because they could result in political dynasties. Compare that with the remark of a certain mayor who proposed to name one of the proposed new provinces as Yabag and another, San Martin. Spot the difference?
I expect more towns to pass resolutions either for or against the divide-Cebu movement soon. I hope that they will take the cue from Davide and address the issue as an idea, not as an occasion to mudsling. One can express his view as passionately as he can without sounding like a fishwife or one who just woke up with a severe hangover.
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Congress is close to passing a new VAT law that, among others, has removed the exemption granted to lawyers. That’s the bad news. The good news is that doctors and lawyers practicing in the countryside are still exempt. Quick, will someone please define “countryside”?
(May 11, 2005 issue)
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