Cebu City Administrator On-Leave Albert Tan and I used to play football together with the Gothong brothers and their employees. I am not sure if that is enough to call us friends but we do know each other.
I know enough to say that Tan is not a politician or was involved in politics in any way. He may, however, have been friends with some politicians. Friendship with those in power is an asset that a practical businessman cultivates. It can come in handy any time.
It was Mayor Nestor Archival himself who broke to us the news of Tan’s appointment during breakfast at a hotel near the waterfront sometime in May or June last year. A friend invited me to the get-together.
The announcement surprised me. All along I thought that Paul Villarete was going to be appointed to the post since he was close to Vice Mayor Tommy Osmeña.
Why Tan? He was/is a successful businessman but he had no experience in government. City Hall, the administrator’s office in particular, is a veritable snake pit. Can he navigate the bureaucracy without getting bitten by
a cobra?
He could not say no to the mayor, Tan would tell me later when he joined the breakfast. I wished him luck. I meant it.
He didn’t have much success there, it turned out. Osmeña was critical of him since day one. He called him the worst city administrator ever. (Pardon me, Tom but are you sure no other “little mayor” was worse than Tan?)
Let me digress and go back to the subject of Tan being an acquaintance. I thought that because we exchanged passes at the football pitch of the San Carlos Seminary in Mabolo, I could get a little favor acted upon with more dispatch than one coming from a stranger.
I was wrong. It took many months before the city applied a little asphalt on Manuel Uyson St. and when they did, they failed to address the cause of the damage to the road. In less than a week the damage resurfaced.
I told Tan about it. His reply: Why didn’t I tell him about the cause of the pothole? I was perplexed. How could I have known? Shouldn’t the repair crew have examined the cause before filling the pothole with asphalt?
That is going to be another project, he told me. Next year. We’re into the 10th month of “next year” now and it wasn’t until last week that a team from our barangay, not City Hall, came to fill up the hole.
Meanwhile, Tan has gone on a leave of absence. City Hall’s announcement of his departure was cryptic. It did not say why, and when he’s going to return.
Welcome to public service.