Monday, February 04, 2008 Seares: ‘Manguros na lang ta ani’ By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
CATHOLICS make the sign of the cross when danger strikes or is about to, a ritual of hope to survive a crisis.
It also means being resigned to what’s coming, accepting defeat, and entrusting one’s fate to God.
If Cebu City Vice Mayor Mike Rama were merely playing to the gallery of Catholic voters by using a devotee’s sound bite, one wouldn’t be disheartened.
Yet, placed in the setting of what other leaders are saying on the same day about the Banilad-Talamban flyover, Mike’s “manguros na lang ta ani” (we’ll just make the sign of the cross) must worry folks who trust their leaders to lead.
Citom says it doesn’t know how to cope with the monstrous traffic jam that comes with the flyover project. The mayor says he’ll leave it to motorists how to cross the Ban-Tal stretch. And the vice mayor says, “Manguros na lang ta.”
Guys, you are the traffic regulators as part of the basic services City Hall provides and you leave it all to us how to fend for ourselves?
if recall of elected public officials were not so hard and messy, you’d be facing a recall election now.
Not being bossy
Mayor Tomas Osmeña who’s the boss and never lets anyone forget it is suddenly feeling like not being bossy. He gives motorists the right to decide how to negotiate Ban-Tal road. And, to top it all, he says Mike will be in charge, anyway he’ll be mayor soon.
By soon, Tomas must mean 2010 or, earlier, if body or spirit yields to the rigors of selling SRP and running City Hall (in that order of toughness).
As Sancho Panza should have said about prospects of killing a windmill, “Not good, Don Quijote, not good.”
