Thursday, March 20, 2008 Espinoza: Lozada now more of a politician By Elias L. Espinoza Free Zone
“VETO capital” of the Philippines is how opposition Councilor Vic Biaño describes Mandaue City because Mayor Jonas Cortes vetoes ordinances the City Council pass.
The description is, of course, rhetorical. Biaño does not mean Mandaue will replace Manila as the country’s capital. Mayor Cortes’ penchant to block every act of the Council prompted Biaño’s comment.
The tug-of-war, so to speak, between Mayor Cortes and the opposition-dominated Council shows that both cannot work hand-in-hand. Whatever the Council does, the executive will undo.
The way things are going in Mandaue indicates that earlier efforts to mend the differences between the opposition councilors and mayor have failed. Their gap is getting wider and bigger. In this, the loser is the public that these officials are sworn to serve.
Meanwhile, Mandaue may end up as one of the dirtiest cities in the country. Garbage is dumped in street corners while traffic in the city remains disorderly despite the new color of the traffic enforcers’ uniforms.
What I am saying is that the Council and the mayor should agree on a common goal, which is to serve the public well, to end the standoff.
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Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada, Jr. wore a black shirt with the line “United in search for the truth” written on it when he visited Cebu the other day. Still searching for the truth?
My respect for Lozada was high when he showed courage to testify in the Senate against top government officials on alleged corruption in the NBN-ZTE deal. But when he spoke in forums outside the Senate, I started entertaining doubts on his sincerity and motive.
There’s a whale of difference between Lozada and Clarissa Ocampo, who testified against then president Erap Estrada in the impeachment trial. Ocampo never went around the country to “speak the truth.”
If Lozada knows the truth, Cebu or even the Senate is not the right venue to talk about it but the court, which can fully appreciate his testimony and render a verdict against the accused.
He does not have to travel far and preach the truth to Cebuanos. We are aware of what he testified to in the Senate. What he knew can be put to better use if cases are filed against those greedy officials.
On the other hand, I was bothered by the report that a man, who only identified himself as “Po, 28,” was booed, punched and forced to leave a forum because Lozada and the organizers did not like the questions he asked.
How ironic. The organizers preach freedom and democracy yet they do not know how to practice them. When they bring Lozada to an open forum, they should not expect everyone to sing hallelujahs to him.
What if a reporter asks a question similar to what “Po” asked, would the captive crowd jeer or the organizers send the reporter out of the venue? I’m glad I was not invited to the forum.
Worse, Lozada insulted the church in Cebu when he called it the “Archdiocese of Malacañang” allegedly because Cardinal Vidal prevented priests from saying mass in his honor, a claim the prelate denied.
He talked about “spiritual harassment” (I don’t know what he meant by that) even when one of the organizers, Fr. Max Abalos, said a mass was not included in the program.
With the way he talks and acts, Lozada is now more of a politician than a witness. Had Lozada contented himself in being low profile like Ocampo, the “truth” that he knows would have remained pristine.
