I looked up the phrase “bring it on” on the internet.
According to macmillandictionary.com, it’s an informal mainly British phrase “used for saying you are confident and excited about facing a challenge or contest.”
“If they want to take the complaint to court, bring it on!” was the example it gave.
So I guess that’s what Gov. Hilario Davide III meant when he reacted to the news that his predecessor, Third District Rep. Gwen Garcia, who is running in the gubernatorial race in May against Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, planned to file more complaints against him.
Apparently, Davide is prepared to “tweak the nose of terror” and “laugh in the face of danger.”
The first lady governor of Cebu, along with Provincial Board Member Alex Binghay, already filed an injunction suit against him to stop the construction of the 20-story, P1.3-billion provincial resource center inside the Capitol compound on the grounds that the Provincial Board did not authorize him to enter into contracts with a bank and a building contractor and ignored other lawful procedures.
Davide, though, was unfazed. “We are prepared to defend the project. Of course, we know them. Mao man ni sila. Hilig kaayo og broka. Kanang file-file dayon og kaso, pero sige lang preparado man ta motubag ana,” he said.
He said his administration “observed the requirements under the Government Procurement Act.”
Other public officials had fallen flat on their faces for paltry transactions much less one involving more than a billion pesos. But we’ll just have to wait and see. As they say, it ain’t over till it’s over. Or, for the politically incorrect, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings. Oh, I apologize to all the horizontally-challenged people out there. It was never my intention to insult them with this colloquialism.
But I digress.
It seems Davide is very confident about being exonerated. I can almost imagine him saying, a la Janice de Belen when she confessed about her pregnancy in a TV talk show back in the ‘80s, that “God was with them when they did it.” By “they,” she meant her then sweetheart Aga Muhlach. And by “it” I mean when Davide insisted on pushing through with the P1.3-billion project despite all the objections.
I suppose he has to appear like his hands have never been dirtied despite all the talk of corruption during his two terms as governor. After all, he used his father’s clean and incorruptible image to woo voters. He wouldn’t want to shame the family name.
Still, he’s very lucky his family comes from Argao, as do mine, and that he and my father and two uncles are fraternity brothers. That’s why I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. As I always have.
Hey, Davide may be innocent as he claims, but he needs to explain about the alleged purchase of overpriced heavy equipment, vehicles and fees for suppliers of the Capitol. He can’t hide behind the it’s-the-election-campaign-period excuse forever. He needs to prove his critics wrong. After all, if there’s smoke there’s fire.
So in the name of transparency, Governor Davide, bring it on.