WHEN they met in Manila sometime ago, Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy, pastor and church leader of the Philippines-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ, invited Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama to visit Davao City for, among others, an interview with him on the Quiboloy-owned SMNI (Sunshine Media Network International). Mayor Mike reminded him about it, which led to last weekend’s trip.
Here are some takeaways on the 1:55:49, one-on-one chat between the city mayor and the religious leader. We cherry-picked Cebu issues that weren’t too clear yet or were too interesting not to pursue.
[1] ‘PAREHA MI’G KINA-IYA.’ Pastor Q told Mayor MLR, “You’re a visionary like me.” MLR told Q, “Pareha gyud ta.” “You’re my brother, I came here for you.”
Before one starts spotting differences between the religious leader and the political leader, the similarities are limited to their avowed programs and projects for the less fortunate of their constituency or flock (taken up in #4).
Spread all over the almost two-hour conversation were bits of praise for each other, in something like a mutual-admiration setting where both managed to make the pitch for themselves and their respective advocacies. As interviewer, Pastor Q raised a number of issues that would’ve made Mayor Mike uncomfortable but the public official, theoretically on the hot seat, survived it easily.
[2] NINE-YEARS-IN-THREE. Atty. Collin Rosell, the mayor’s secretary, in the January 31, 2023 presscon at City Hall, raised the city administration’s “we’ll-do-nine-in-three” goal. Rama was seated beside Rosell who asked the mayor to confirm. The mayor’s reaction wasn’t seen or heard then but in Davao last Saturday (February 4), Mike himself said it twice and gave an idea why and how.
One can gather the reasons for the bulk and the rush from snippets in the interview. He wants it to be a legacy of service, as exemplified by his own service (multiple terms as city councilor, vice mayor and mayor) and that of his grandfather Don Vicente Rama, and others in the Rama family who served as governors and congressmen.
Mayor Mike probably knows he can’t cram it all in one mayor’s term but he must be planning to keep the mayor’s seat for two more terms. Off the cuff, he said his term would “end in 2025 but there are still two terms...,” his voice trailing off.
Mayor Mike said more than once about aiming high and dreaming big. City Hall watchers speculate he’s having a lot on his plate until 2025 and would finish as much as he could but would leave the rest to the second and third term. Which would provide a good reason for voters to keep him, if he’d succeed magnificently, or replace him if he wouldn’t. A case of “aspire big” and do as much as one could.
That may explain the humongous P50 billion budget for 2023, with the projects designed to kick off everywhere all at once in the rest of the 2022-2025 period, even as the conservative taxpayer may wonder if the huge sum can be raised and all those projects can be finished in one year or even one term.
[3] FAVE PROJECTS. Mayor Mike managed to talk about his favorite projects, including the building of more than 300 medium-rise buildings for those dislocated by demolition of illegal structures and “informal settlers,” bus rapid transit and monorails, and other initiatives aimed to bring about a “Singapore-like Cebu City.”
On activities, Cebu City reportedly bids for the hosting of Palarong Pambansa 2024 and plans for a Sinulog Philippines next year, however that will be staged, if managing the Cebu Sinulog isn’t heavy enough burden.
[4] MANTRA IN GOVERNANCE, POLITICS may be gathered from the clutch of slogans, catchwords and catchphrases and acronyms the mayor loves to create (example: NATO is “no action, talk only”). And those were all over the Davao interview, such as:
--- “Together we can make greater things happen,” which Mayor Rama has used in many election campaigns. But note, he said, it’s now “greater” instead of “great,” with the add-on “er,” presumably because some “great things” already happened.
He credited Henry Ford for the idea. (Ford’s quote: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” ) But Mother Theresa’s was closest to Mayor Mike’s catchphrase. She said, “You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can make great things.” And did you know Mayor Mike’s team spent half a day “brainstorming” on it?
--- “Singapore-like Cebu City,” not “Cebu City like Singapore,” insisting there’s a difference because Cebu City cannot be another Singapore but will just emulate its good attributes such as the greenery, discipline, and advances in mass housing, transport and livelihood. And with that, such campaign sub-slogans as “Gubat batok baha” and “Denguerra.”
--- “Good for the greater number” and other clichés he uses on advocacies of governance and politics, including: “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” “honesty is the best policy,” “no one must be left behind,” “a more comfortable life for all,” and similar sloganeering.
Which can be practical advice to anyone -- “ang bulawan ana-a ra sa atong tugkaran” – or hackneyed promise to do-gooders – “You never die in the mind and heart of the people.” The “find-gold thing” he uses in what he calls “investment begging” to industrialists who come from or have ties in Cebu.
[5] SIGNALS TO TOMAS, GWEN. The speculation that Mayor Mike is publicizing feelers of peace or let’s-be-friends-again is reinforced by the lines Rama has publicly said about his political rival Tomas Osmeña, whose wife was beaten in the 2022 election after he himself was beaten in 2019.
Rama told Pastor Q that Osmeña is a rival, not an enemy and, in a seeming after-thought, said they could be in the same camp again. Before that, a week before, Mayor Mike said he wants Tomas at the launching of the BRT project and, earlier on a number of occasions, he talked about Tomas being a mentor and largely responsible for the South Road Properties and other projects.
Asked by Pastor Q about his controversy with Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia, the mayor said the Rama family has always been friends of the Garcias. He talked about not having any rancor, apparently referencing the opposition of Capitol regarding the site of the last Sinulog. He said the goal is to have a “One-Island Cebu”: The province will be invited to the 2024 Sinulog and the planned hosting of the 2025 Palaro will be by the entire Cebu, not Cebu City alone.
[6] BUSINESS WITH QUIBOLOY, MIKE’S ‘BABY.’ Both Pastor Q and Mayor Mike more than once promised to each other, even publicly shaking hands on it, they’d talk some more about possibly building an enormous stadium, larger in capacity than King’s Dome in Davao. The mayor had wished that they could take the pastor’s stadium to Cebu City’s SRP. That may have some religious implication on predominantly Catholic Cebu City but Mike in the same interview said he has always been “inclusive.”
On the construction of Cebu City Medical Center, whose serial delays have annoyed and angered Rama, the mayor announced on November 9, 2022 the cancellation of the P900-million contract for its fourth phase. Stressing the importance of the project begun in 2015, he told Pastor Q, “It’s my baby.” He told his wife, he said, “my life wouldn’t be complete” with an unfinished city hospital. He didn’t become a priest or a doctor, he said, the lines of work he had first set eyes on, and as expression of his “passion to help,” he wanted “a hospital for the poor that can give the kind of service for the rich.”
[7] MAYOR’S VALENTINE GREETING. As he has done in Cebu City, Mayor Mike used the SMNI interview to announce love for his wife and an advanced Valentine greeting.
Pastor Q’s question as to how he spends his day led to the disclosure that the mayor would rather go home instead of eating out (his response to the plea of, “I can’t eat without you, ‘Ga”) or spending the night with the boys. And on the question of a leader knowing the state of his people’s lives, Mayor Mike said he had gone up the mountain to meet with his wife’s family. []