THERE you go. It’s not that we haven’t seen this before, but that the practice has become repetitive only means it stems from something systemic. Some winners in the recently concluded Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in Cebu City are shifting allegiance as easily as changing clothes.

Day-as officials led by the barangay’s newly elected chief, Freddie Esmas, who ran under the opposition Barug Team Rama, took their oath before Mayor Tomas Osmeña, which means they are now allied with the administration Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK). And Esmas’ logic is one we often hear from turncoats:

“My running is really for the best interest of my barangay, nothing else. Of course, giklaro nako that I have to make a very hard decision of which the bottom line is for the best interest of Day-as,” he said.

As a veteran politician, the mayor knows well the weaknesses in our political setup and is using these for his advantage. That is precisely why when he campaigned for BOPK-allied bets in the recent elections, he made sure all the candidates would get the message: “Whether you like it or not, I will still be mayor after all of this.”

And the mayor amply showed the city previous to that how that point is translated in real terms. Against incumbent barangay officials allied with the opposition, he created the so-called Barangay Mayor’s Office (BMO) that effectively short-circuited the opposition barangay officials’ links with Cebu City Hall. The mayor funneled City Hall’s services to the BMOs instead.

But the shift in allegiance also shows one glaring weakness in the country’s political parties. Because of the lack of party principles or ideology, personalities are instead the glue that binds them. Michael Rama was supposedly the glue that united Barug Team Rama in the past. BOPK would crumble without Osmeña.

Decades after our electoral setup was restored by the 1987 Constitution, we have seen the weaknesses of the system. The problem is nobody seems to be concerned about it even if these weaknesses have damaged governance.