Thursday, October 09, 2008 Editorials: Recall move, Soc’s political stock
BUSINESSMAN Crisologo Saavedra’s announcement of a recall move against Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez may not be doing the effort to make the mayor see the light in the situation of his adopted son Joavan any good.
The tag of “whistleblower,” which has become suspect the more media reports attach it to the businessman’s name, is not a license for one to surface in every conflict in every local government unit just to hit the media spotlight.
Saavedra is not even a Talisay resident and a recall move done when the next elections are only more than a year away is, at best, a waste of time.
The calm with which Fernandez welcomed Saavedra’s pronouncements showed a confidence based on an understanding of the political equation prevailing in the city.
Things would have been different, of course, had it been Rep. Eduardo Gullas who talked about recall, yet he even refused to make a categorical stand on the matter when prodded to do so during a radio interview.
Damage
But while Fernandez can consider the floating of the idea of a recall move against him as a mere nuisance, he also needs to be objective in assessing the damage his actions in relation to Talisay’s “Joavan problem” has inflicted on his political career.
In recent statements, he continues to insist that what he is doing for his son is personal, meaning it should be separated from the good things he has done as mayor.
What he missed there is that there are indications that his political career is either over or if it is not then it has lost the sheen that made him almost unbeatable in Talisay.
Two factors
Mayor Soc may not admit it, but his political stock has been dependent on these factors: one, the support Gullas has been giving him and, two, his image as a religious and honest man, a perception that made Talisaynons gloss over his other faults as mayor.
But Gullas has been increasingly critical of Fernandez in the past months, especially on the latter’s handling of the Joavan problem, while his effort to settle the cases his adopted son is facing has publicly exposed Mayor Soc’s moral failings as leader.
Joavan’s arrest may give him a respite from reacting to the controversies his adopted son have no qualms creating but he may no longer have time to mend his damaged image considering that next year is already too close to the next elections.
