Saturday, June 30, 2007 Roperos: Businessmen’s stand By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
FINALLY, voices from the business community are expressing concern over the verbal wrestling between City Mayor Tom Osmeña and Gov. Gwen Garcia. The problem the business leaders has howled against, though, is not so much about the cause of the conflict but the effect the quarrel will have on the business atmosphere of the city.
The fallout of the conflict, of course, won’t be on the business environment alone but can also include a slow-down in basic services for the city and province to the detriment of the citizenry. The rift seems to have gone beyond the official interest of their respective offices and into the personal level.
Cebuano businessman and educator Augusto Go said that when he attended a meeting in Manila recently, many businessmen he met asked him why the two top leaders of Cebu are quarreling. It seems Go was at a loss to give convincing reasons to justify the quarrel.
Go, who is also honorary consul of South Korea and president and founder of the University of Cebu, said that the two local government officials, who were both elected overwhelmingly by the Cebuanos, “should respect the voters who gave them their trust and confidence. They should act together and in unity for the good of Cebu.”
This sentiment is shared not only by me but also by many others whom I had the occasion to meet and talk with in recent weeks. Even vendors think so, too.
I have always held, from my management training as career executive service officer III, that government executives, whether elective or appointive, once in position, should render quality service to the public whom they have sworn to serve.
Today, the mayor and the governor are set to take their oaths of office as reelected public officials. I am sure their respective constituents, who are feeling the same apprehensions and concern as the businessmen, are also praying that the new opportunity given both officials to render service to the people would not be wasted in the “domestic” quarrel they mutually started.
The individual inhabitant of the city and province expect from these officials the committed public service they deserve. Whatever these are, they are supposed to render them to the people.
Both leaders should have realized from the very beginning that all services they are to undertake are for the good of their people. Then they would not have behaved the way they did: quarreling as if they are not responsible to their constituents.
