Saturday, November 11, 2006
Roperos: Alvin and Tommy
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
There was this front-page story the other day in one of our local dailies about a political advertisement in the 2004 elections. A case was filed against former mayor Alvin Garcia for causing to be published a political ad believed to have violated election guidelines.
Why the case took so long to be set for trial is really beyond me. But the matter has now come to a head and the parties to the case, who were once close friends, are now enemies.
Often, life cannot be as pleasant as you wish it to be.
There are circumstances that you find very pleasant, almost idyllic, and wondrous. And you feel there’s never any end to it. But human nature and the flow of life is never stable and is subject to change, like the weather. It is, in fact, just like our politics, where friends today become enemies tomorrow.
These thoughts, I feel, is in most of our minds, we who had lived during this first decade of the 21st century, and of the new millenium. It cannot be ignored, denied, or evaded because we have been witnesses to the way they play our politics, and the way our politicians behave while playing it.
They show an almost total lack of moral values and innate dignity when playing power politics, as if it is the be all and end all of their personal life.
It is sad because there are things we must hold more important than those we value. Unfortunately, many of us just take these things for granted. It is only when we are threatened with its loss that we suddenly realize how much dearly we value these things.
Politicians, for instance, tend to take friendship for granted over time. Then suddenly, threatened with the friend’s transfer to the opposite camp, we cry with regret.
This is how things often unfold in our politics. This is what, I believe, has happened in one of the most interesting political team ups in the city.
Once upon a time, Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Garcia were the closest of friends. I know because I witnessed that closeness that may have begun when Tommy was still aspiring to be city mayor.
At one time, months before Tom became mayor, when the campaign was just starting to boil and almost everybody thought that then mayor Boy Cuenco was unbeatable, I was invited to a lunch at Tommy’s house. Alvin was there, for he was angling to become one of the candidates for councilor.
When Tom said that he was running without a complete line-up since he did not even have a candidate for vice mayor, I said it was not a good idea. I suggested he invite Ambassador Frank Benedicto.
But Frank was happy being ambassador to Singapore then, and he refused the invitation. I did not know what happened afterwards, but the next thing I knew was that Alvin had become Tom’s able candidate for vice mayor against another friend, lawyer Gus Go, a political novice, who lost only by over 2,000 votes, if I recall correctly.
Alvin became vice mayor to Tommy. Little did I expect years later, when everything was said and done, that they would turn out to be the worst of enemies.
That’s proof enough that nothing is beyond the clammy hands of change, whether in love or politics. Bedfellows today, political annulment tomorrow. Can they become friends again?
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (November 11, 2006 issue)
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