The team of Michael Rama has shifted its tactic against Team Raymond Garcia. Instead of muscling its way into the Cebu City Hall, Team Michael Rama is now filing cases against Garcia in the hope that Rama would be reinstated by the court as mayor. That would be a long shot, but the move is aligned with the principles of liberal democracy, where an independent judiciary tempers the possible excesses committed by the executive and legislative branches of government. The next move by all those concerned now is to wait. That, I say, should be among the reasons why the City Hall situation has stabilized.
Interestingly, most of the major players in this mess, led by Garcia and Rama, are lawyers. But they are also knowledgeable of Philippine history, where the original Macoy was able to usurp governmental powers in 1972 until he was toppled by people power in 1986. Meaning that our liberal democracy can also be faulty. Extrajudicial moves can win sometimes. But like flowing water, the situation can stabilize in the end, especially after the water reaches the sea.
So Garcia remains as mayor until the court decides in Rama’s favor. But if you ask me, I prefer the status quo. Meaning that, I want a younger Cebu City mayor, although when I saw Raymond lately I was amazed at how he has aged. After all, the Raymond that is in my mind is the Raymond that sometimes visited SunStar Cebu when I was still an active journalist, not a retired one.
Actually, this has happened to the young Metro Manila politicians who, decades ago, took over the leadership from the “old guards” like Joseph Estrada and Alfredo Lim. Isko Moreno Domagoso has aged, especially after suffering a national defeat. Even Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto is no longer the young gun he was when he joined politics decades ago. I could not actually name the young politicians now raring to make a name for themselves in next year’s election.
But voters should be continuously informed of how politics is unfurling in their midst or the practice of liberal democracy would end up being faulty. Elections are meant to ever so often replenish political leadership to make our kind of liberal democracy vigorous and fresh. But we often fail to correctly produce young leaders to replace the old ones. I once saw a video of an old former president being guided to a waiting big bike. The online reactors still held on to those times when he was president, younger and brash. Time to move on, guys.
What our country now needs to produce are young leaders who will bring our kind of governance forward. Many old politicians, like old boxers, actually do not know when to stop slugging it out in politics. They thus fail to groom the right person to take over when they retire. The result is the continuous downgrading of our democratic institutions. Instead of us producing the best leaders, we churn out the bad ones.
That, I say, can also be the fault of liberal democracy. And that is the reason why some people yearn for strongman rule even if it runs counter to the liberal democratic principles they grew up in.