VICE Mayor Michael Rama acted as the master of ceremonies, led the prayer, sang the national anthem, did the opening remarks and introduced Mayor Edgar Labella at the launching of the City’s Three Million Trees in Three Years project at the South Road Properties (SRP) yesterday morning. All because, as he said, he owned the microphone.
He was, of course, joking. The truth was he had to pinchhit for Labella who arrived late because there were more than 50 constituents, each with different concerns, waiting to be entertained when he stepped out of his house at 5 a.m.
Rama did a good job, too, especially in the prayer part which he said entirely in Bisaya. If he decides to retire from politics to pursue a new career path, he should try preaching. He has the tools.
The vice mayor was his usual ebullient self and the comparatively reserved Labella matched his energy, obviouly buoyed by the presence of hundreds of volunteers waiting to plant their first tree. There was no sign of the supposed tension between the pair, who had been teammates in three successive elections. If they maintain that teamwork, Labella and Rama are hard to beat.
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I had a very interesting conversation with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia last Friday. It was the first real talk I had with the governor since her exit from the Capitol six years ago.
Those six years obviously served her well. “My stint in Congress broadened my perspective,” she said.
Garcia’s strength is that she is not afraid to wade into controversy if that is what it takes to get what she wants. Take her outsourcing program, for example. It has met strong resistance particularly from the affected medical professionals but Garcia is not blinking.
It’s about efficiency, she said, and the judicious use of the government’s resources. Many hospitals are overstaffed because they have become a dumping ground for political appointees, “and we continue to hear horror stories of patients not getting adequate medical attention or worse, being maltreated.”
The reality is that you cannot divorce politics from governance, Garcia admitted, adding that she does not want to get caught in the same cycle of political accommodation that bedeviled past administrations. Without outsourcing, friends and allies will ask her to accommodate their own friends with appointments to public office. “If I refuse, they will be disappointed with me.”
But the biggest advantage of outsourcing, she said, is that she can hold the service provider accountable for results. She can have an inefficient staff member replaced immediately by his employer. If it was the Province that hired him, quick replacement would have been very difficult since they have to follow due process.
She has nothing more to prove, Garcia said. “I will just govern.”