Friday, December 15, 2006 Malilong: Let us manage our expectations By Frank Malilong Jr. The Other Side
I KNOW of a case that is still pending in the trial court six years it was filed.
The facts are simple. An old man was about to cross the street when a bus that was trying to avoid a parked tricycle swerved to the opposite lane and hit him. It was supposed to have been heard last month but the defense lawyer asked for a postponement because the bus driver’s mother died. The next hearing will be in May next year yet.
Ask a trial judge and he will tell you that one of the reasons for the delay in the disposal of cases is the difficulty in finding a date of hearing that is acceptable to the parties and, more importantly, their counsel. Most practicing lawyers are busy with so many cases while the rest pretend to be.
I am writing about this because if it is not easy to get ordinary mortals like the attorneys to agree to a date within a month’s notice, how much more difficult is it to gather together heads of state for a summit in so short a time?
A part of me wants to believe what the organizers say: that the re-scheduled Asean summit will push through early next month and that it will be moved to Manila only over the dead body of Marciano Paynor Jr., the Philippine ambassador to the Asean.
Another part, however, says that, after the disappointment of the postponed coming-out party, I should manage my expectations and be wary of assurances even if they come not from politicians but from ambassadors.
For haven’t they similarly swore to us earlier that the Asean summit will be held in Cebu in December come hell or high water? And yet, if we are to believe (again) what they said to us about the reason for the summit’s sudden cancellation, the slightest hint of heavy rains from “Seniang,” which was not even forecast to directly hit Cebu City, was enough to terrify our leaders into urging our guests to hightail it.
We are now being told, albeit unofficially, that in fact, it was not the threat of a weather disturbance that cancelled the summit but that of something more sinister and more terrifying. But that’s the whole point. If they could not tell us the truth that it was the fear of terrorists that led to the cancellation of the summit in December, how can we ever trust their word again?
Let us rejoice if the summit pushes through in January as promised but let us not lose sleep if it doesn’t. Let’s manage our expectations.
*** Tomorrow evening, the Provincial Government will confer the “Garbo sa Sugbo Awards” upon Cebuanos who have brought honor to Cebu. One of the awardees is Judge Fortunato de Gracia, who will be cited for his “exemplary performance and outstanding contribution in the Judiciary.” He was also chosen one of the most outstanding judges in the country this year by the Supreme Court.
De Gracia is a deserving awardee and I am sure that his conferment of the “Garbo sa Sugbo” title is something that the Capitol will not regret.
