Malilong: A day in the life

WE PAID a courtesy call on Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella the other day. It was the second time I’ve set foot on the eighth floor of the building where the old mayor’s office is. Or was. The first time must have been 15 years ago when I was invited by then mayor Tomas Osmeña to attend a briefing on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system inside Osmeña’s office.

We know what happened to the office. It was destroyed upon Osmeña’s orders two days before Labella took his oath, effectively barring the latter from occupying the former’s enclave. Osmeña would later claim that he was planning on restoring the office but two of his successor’s lawyers prevented his workers from doing so.

What I saw was really appaling. The whole room was a wreck, including the comfort room. Osmeña’s workers removed the ceiling, the floor tiles, the electrical outlet covers and even the toilet bowl. Worse, they drilled holes on many of the tiles that were not removed. If it was not malicious, I do not know what is.

That was not just my opinion. My companions, Lester Razo, Noli Caisip and William Acosta felt the same way. And all of us were left wondering how, after what we have seen, anyone could believe that the person who dispatched the rampaging workers that fateful night could have at that time entertained any thought of repairing the widespread damage that they were set to do and have purposely done.

***

The stream of people wanting to see the mayor has ebbed, we were told. I could only imagine how huge the crowd was before it receded. As it was, the number of people waiting for their turn to see Labella last Friday was still intimidating. And he was not going to disappoint any one of them. He actually missed lunch as a result, he told me yesterday. So that was how an ordinary day in the life of a mayor works.

I wonder how the other city mayors in Cebu, the new ones, particularly are coping. Only Danao, Mandaue and Naga have veteran mayors. Bogo’s Carlo Martinez is only on his second term while the rest are rookie city chief executives.

Next to Labella, Lapu-lapu City Mayor Ahong Chan has the heaviest burden on his shoulders. So much is expected of him by his people who elected him over former mayor Boy Radaza because they believed that he could bring in change.

The Radazas were well-entrenched; for two decades, more or less, their political grip of Lapulapu had been vise-like and largely unchallenged. But Ahong surprised all the naysayers and shocked Radaza. If there is a catalog of electoral versions of the story of David and Goliath, Ahong’s slaying of a political dynasty should be an early entry.

Creating a business-friendly environment for his city should be a Chan priority. For years now, businessmen have been complaining that it is time-consuming and expensive to open a business in Lapu-lapu City. Chan’s advantage is that he doesn’t carry too much political baggage so it is easier for him to introduce innovations.

He is also not known to act like a know-it-all. This humility will allow him to examine what his colleagues are doing in the neighboring and other cities and adopt their best practices. He can, for example, look into the initiatives taken by Labella to make Cebu City attractive to investors because of the ease of doing business here and apply them to Lapu-lapu City.

Labella, who is the national chairman of the League of Cities of the Philippines, has repeatedly said that he wants people to remember his stint as mayor for his ego-less style of governance. It will not hurt Chan and his colleagues to pursue the same dream.

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