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Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Wenceslao: Jun Pe's saga
By Bong O. Wenceslao
Augustus Pe Jr. almost didn’t make it to the Cebu City Council in the 2004 elections. But after just a little more than a year in office, he can be considered among the more powerful councilors in the city. He reached that stature not through legislative savvy but through guts and the ability to ingratiate himself to Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Pe has been into some controversies, like his “inspecting” police stations one very early morning and shaming in front of reporters the policemen he caught dozing off. Recently, however, the table turned. Media people caught Pe visiting a nightspot using his government-issued vehicle. The next day he was at the same restobar with the mayor.
Nobody was surprised, therefore, when Osmeña defended Pe and the improper use of the vehicle City Hall issued. Both used the twisted argument that a councilor is a councilor 24 hours a day---ergo, wherever they go they are on an official function. Following that logic, a councilor can cavort with a GRO and claim he is working.
But then Pe and the mayor may really have been “working” inside the nightspot. Apparently, it is inside bars that Osmeña and Pe become creative and are able to hatch the good policies needed to better run the city. Also, it is in bars that the mayor finds the time to instruct his favorite councilor to file the resolutions and ordinances he wants.
I am not really surprised that the mayor is turning to Pe more and more than the other members of the council. Not only is the man gutsy, he does not have the nature to question what his boss says. That is not like the other councilors who are either pretending to be independent or are distancing themselves from the mayor’s moves.
This could be to Pe’s advantage or could be his undoing. Advantage in the sense that at this stage he can enjoy the momentary power he now owns (the classic “langaw nga nakatungtong sa bukobuko sa kabaw”). But a good number of people also frown upon the “langaw nga magkinabaw,” which could be Pe’s undoing in the 2007 elections.
MY BLOG. It has been weeks since Sun.Star’s Max Limpag encouraged me to blog, but it is only recently that I am starting to get the hang of it. There were two reasons for my initial discomfiture: one, I am not into writing journals; two, I didn’t know a blog’s purpose. The early days, therefore, were the awkward days.
One time, I was poring into my file when something just clicked in: I would use the blog to store products of my creative writing meanderings---and other personal things besides. Since then, my blog has started to move, although with the limited time, it is moving slowly. But khanwens.i.ph is officially on.
(khanwens@yahoo.com/0927-2055064)
(November 23, 2005 issue)
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