Came the attempt to sell the city hall complex to Koreans
I RECALL that there was a public hearing called for that purpose and though uninvited I came. I was not only representing myself. It was the year that the Cagayan de Oro Travel and Tours Association Inc. was formally registered, and I was the president. The hearing was held at the Tourism Hall and the place was packed. I could not recall why but it was Michelle Tagarda who presided over the hearing.
I raised my hand several times to be recognized but to no avail. Thinking that a remark to Ms. Tagarda weeks ago that I would tie myself to the acacia tree at the foot of Ysalina Bridge, if they attempted to cut it down, was the reason why I was not being called, I decided to stand up and approached the microphone and spoke.
I said, “I am here to register my objection to the sale of the city hall complex on the grounds that it is a heritage structure. Let me remind this Council that even the Supreme Court had ruled against the sale of Manila Hotel being a heritage structure, to foreigners. With objections from other sectors, the plan was shelved.
I suppose that there was no love lost with City Hall especially when I co-hosted a daily talk show which ran for nine months. We were given local and national news and we commented on them impromptu. The spontaneity was a refreshing relief to the otherwise staid local shows. But we soon got tired of it. Though we had created a following there were more pressing matters to attend to.
I was then enrolled at the Xavier University College of Law. I endured three semesters of rigorous study, the daily anxiety if one will be called to recite and of course the examinations. But through it all, it was fun. I found friends and daily after class, we would sit and debate until our voices became hoarse over red horse beer. I found the law was as magnificent as the marble of Taj Mahal. But soon enough, it crumbled.
We had law student fundraising project where the officers themselves were not keen on accounting for the unsold tickets to street dance festival. I thought that if these aspiring officers of the court would not be accountable to concert tickets, what more to the law and how it impacts on the life, property and liberty, especially of the poor. There were other incidents of course when the majesty of the law paled to human weakness and expediency. But no need to mention them anymore.
I quit. For the first time in my life, I was not going to see myself finishing what I had started. Even my own father was disappointed that he was not going to see his own son, the first in the family to be a lawyer. It may have scarred me but I have lived with it. I am consoled with the realization that all that is legislated flow from a universal law of reason, fairness and justice. And no man nor branch of government can be more powerful than the power of the law which holds the balance of human desire and public order. Or so it seems.
Came another attempt of Pagcor to re-establish a casino. A businessman came to see me at my travel agency and revealed that the City Council had approved a resolution to establish a casino at the Limketkai Mall. I immediately went to the City Council office to verify the information, and true enough, there was indeed an approved resolution, but amended to locate the facility at Alwana, Gusa.
I got a copy of the resolution and prayed over my next step. It was going to be a different ball game. This time, the incumbent Mayor was fond of gambling. I had nowhere else to go but to cross Gaston Park. (to be continued)