Tuesday, October 07, 2008 Seares: Cebu minusTomas By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
BEFORE allies of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña curse me for insensitivity, let me say I mean well and join others who wish him to survive his health crisis: a mass in his bladder for which he’ll seek treatment in the US.
Most of us shun talk of mortality but the mayor is no ordinary mortal. As mayor, he has held the economic and political fate of the city for so long that few Cebuanos don’t wonder of a Cebu without Tomas.
Candid, at times offensively so, Tomas is anything but dull or insipid. Thus, Cebuanos tend to ask privately, if not in his face, What will happen after Tomas?
Cebu will go on but what will be the fallout?
Some companies with vast and long-term stakes in the city have reportedly ordered their think tanks for scenarios of doing business in the city without Tomas or with a wimp of a Tomas.
He catches flu, collapses at a function, or his stomach grows some inches wider: that kind of news jolts. Story of a possible prostate cancer sends seismic shock.
State of health
His state of health affects many people: his vice mayor who’s obsessed to succeed Tomas; city councilors who want to shed off the rubber-stamp tag; business chiefs with whom Tomas crosses on taxes and parking requirements; employees whom he goads to be efficient and honest; and cab drivers and barbecue vendors he picks on when he plays “polis-polis.”
Critics will miss him. Those who got “kalabasa” awards, a shaming no other politico does. Perceived or real enemies with whom he tangles in or off court. Journalists he thinks are scum or dumb.
And the governor—good Lord, What will happen to the Tom and Gwen show?
