Malilong: 'Tsetseburetse'

Vice Mayor Michael Rama called last Sunday to say that he agreed with my observation that our national basketball officials should seriously consider choosing which international basketball tournaments to join and which ones to absolutely avoid to save us from further embarrassing losses in the hands of far more superior foes.

“Paradigm shift” was the phrase Rama used to describe what he said was needed to be done. This time, let’s pick our battles.

As it usually happens when he is on the line, the conversation turned towards other, non-basketball, topics. Just before he hung up, he asked if I wanted to interview him on Frankahay Ta. I told him, why not and we chose last Tuesday as the date of the interview.

When I remembered that I had a breakfast meeting with our company CEO that same morning, I texted Rama if he wanted the interview to happen the following day. He said no, let’s stick to Tuesday.

In the end, I failed to attend both because of a virulent virus that I picked up most probably in Xiamen and which continues to hamper my mobility until now.

Rama had promised a noholds-barred discussion and it would have been fun watching him answer questions on such matters as his relationship with Mayor Edgardo Labella.

Anyway, I was able to listen to portions of the interview and I must say that I couldn’t have done a better and more thorough job than my co-anchors,

Ely Espinosa and Titus Borromeo.

The questions and the manner that they presented them to Rama were indeed no-holds-barred. And they reined in the vice mayor when he started to give long and rambling answers.

Rama had openly expressed displeasure when Labella created a governing board to oversee next year’s Sinulog because he felt that it eroded his control, as chairman of the Sinulog Foundation, over the festivities.

The mayor was in Bangkok when Rama exploded so the issue dragged for three days before the former could address it.

Apparently, the matter has been resolved and the flap over turf has since died. In the interview, Rama emphasized the unity between him and Labella but

couldn’t resist saying the mayor should stop listening to “tsetseburetse” from his confidants.

Rama has a valid point there. He and Labella go a long way, their unity sorely tested a number of times including in the months leading to the filing of certificates of candidacy last year.

They passed the test each time. Why listen to gossip when one is only a phone call away?

But his advice to Labella applies to him with equal force as well. He has his own share of Rasputins, mostly people who continue to carry misgivings over his “personal sacrifice” to Labella.

He should not only ignore them, he should tell them to keep quiet.

When Labella was vice mayor to Rama, he consistently deferred to the chief executive, politely declining requests to speak in public gatherings when the mayor was around and patiently listening to Rama’s long speeches instead of walking around and shaking hands.

Because he chose to stay in the background, there was never a talk of Labella wanting to become mayor, with or without Rama.

If there had been, Labella would have promptly reprimanded anyone saying or repeating it.

This was easy for him to do because Labella did not harbor any ambition to become mayor at Rama’s expense.

Maybe, Rama can look to those days and take a lesson or two from what made their partnership tick. Unlike in our choice of basketball tournaments, here, there is no need for a paradigm shift. fmmalilong@yahoo.com