False comparison
What are 11,000 employees of ABS-CBN who’d be unemployed with the shutdown of the broadcast network compared to the rest of the millions of Filipinos (104.9 million, as of 2017)?
That’s the argument that Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and his supporters offer in the current debate on the ABS-CBN issue.
The comparison is a bit flawed: one cannot compare the plight of the specific number of ABS-CBN people who could lose their jobs against the rest of the population who are not similarly situated. The prospect of suffering by one group, though a minuscule part of the whole, is real and immediate while the prospect of benefit to the rest of the nation is abstract and not quantified.
It’s something like false equivalence or comparison.
Such arguments are muddling the debate. ABS-CBN and the government and their respective defenders need to focus on the core issue: Did the network violate the terms of the franchise and would the penalty of shutdown be proportionate to the offense?
Politician’s magic
What do most Cebuanos not know about Serging Osmeña Jr. who served as Cebu governor (1951), Cebu City mayor (three terms: 1955, 1959, 1963), congressman (1958) and senator (1965)?
This March 26 (a Wednesday) will be the 36th anniversary of his death. He died in 1984 at 67. (His sons former city mayor Tomas Osmeña and ex-senator Serge Osmeña are 71 and 76.)
Dec. 4 last year, when Cebu City honored the 103th anniversary of Serging’s birth, Mayor Edgardo Labella called Serging “the best president the Philippines never had.” Serging, son of President Sergio Osmeña Sr., ran for vice president in 1961 but lost to Emmanuel Pelaez and later, in 1969, for president but lost to Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Most people know that Serging was the father of Tomas, Serge, Minnie, Georgia and Esteban. The first Mactan-Cebu bridge and a city street are named after Serging and his statue stands at the plaza in front of City Hall.
What else about Serging, other than what the local papers reported on Georgia Osmeña’s speech last Dec. 4, is there to know?
[1] Serging did card tricks that, Georgia said, he learned from a magician roommate in New York where he pursued further studies after he graduated from Ateneo de Manila. He didn’t show them during the political rallies he attended; otherwise, people would’ve known about it.
[2] Serging never collected salary during his life of public service. People knew that at one time or another, he didn’t pick up his paycheck as a public official. What we didn’t know, from what Georgia said, was that Serging only accepted one peso for each year of his terms as governor, city mayor, congressman and senator. That claim has not yet been disputed by Osmeña critics.
When a political opponent bad-mouthed him, Serging didn’t sue, as his son Tomas would. Serging would say, Georgia told her Dec. 4 audience, “Let him defend himself at Freedom Park.” Freedom Park was Cebu’s version of Plaza Miranda, before vendors overran the whole place.
Whose side was Georgia on?
Georgia Osmeña would’ve been the third politician in the family, after Tomas and Serge. Minnie could appear to support a sibling at a rally but never ran for public office. Georgia did, in 2010, for city mayor against Mike Rama, now the vice mayor, who was then supported by her brother Tomas.
Rama won in that election and beat mentor Tomas in the 2013 fight. In 2016, Mike lost to Tomas. But in 2019, sliding to the vice mayor’s seat and running in tandem with Labella as mayor, Rama got even and helped recapture City Hall.
On whose side do you think was Georgia in the last election? I know but the time to tell has passed. Next time when it becomes newsworthy.
Land for the meek
Pope Francis said Wednesday (Feb. 19) that being meek does not mean being a pushover. He continued his talk about the Eight Beatitudes in his weekly general audience at the Vatican, focusing on the third, which says “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land.”
Those living along banks of increasingly toxic rivers in Cebu City may find it hard to reconcile meekness, which means accepting an order of eviction, with inheriting the land, which means getting or keeping a place to live.
From what the Pope said, riverside dwellers can still push for their right without anger and with patience. If not, they will still be rewarded with what the Pope called “something greater than some earthly territory.” The heavens could wait; for now and the rest of their life, they need an earthly place.