WHAT kind of leader sacrifices the common good just to prove a point against an individual? That question should be asked following Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s latest caper, which was to pull out traffic enforcers directing the traffic in the Mambaling area where an underpass is being constructed.
The move, which was apparently meant to worsen the already chaotic traffic situation in the area, was in response to a taunt by Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7 Director Victor Caindec, who headed the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) when Osmeña’s bitter rival, Michael Rama, was mayor.
Caindec’s taunt, that he could better solve the daily traffic problem on Natalio Bacalso Ave. caused by the construction of an underpass, was itself a response to Osmeña’s own sniping at the LTO for the slow processing of vehicle registration papers.
A taunt for a sniping. But as is the mayor’s wont, he went from mere talk to sacrificing the welfare of people who pass by Natalio Bacalso Ave., an important artery, together with the Cebu South Coastal Road in the South Road Properties (SRP), for moving vehicles, passengers and cargo to the southern tip of the island.
This is not the first time that Osmeña allowed his ego to ride roughshod over the people’s larger interest. He has done this a number of times before. Case in point: he once blocked the main gate of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño with iron railings to get even with vendors who refused to vacate the sidewalk along Osmeña Blvd. Where people would pass going to the said gate.
Good leaders usually suppress their ego when public service calls for it. In the case of the construction of the underpass, which Osmeña himself allowed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to do without thorough preparation, taming the chaotic traffic trumps any other public service considerations. Pulling out the traffic enforcers there may be considered dereliction of a mayor’s duty.
If the mayor thinks that he has put Caindec in his place with his latest caper, he’d better think again. It isn’t Caindec he is hurting but the people within and outside Cebu City.