I was with Roging and my cousin Eddie just few days after the 2005 election. It was
just coincidental that I was dragged along to the unscheduled visit on his worship the
mayor. It was fun. The small elevator at the new city hall was overloaded that it
won't go up. We had to drive out half of the occupants before it started to climb.
There was some kind of a forum where the mayor and his key people answered questions
from a fairly size group of people at the mayor's reception area. Our classmate,
Artemio Radaza saw us coming and he took time to welcome us. He then led us to a group
of courteous young ladies that gave us coffee and light snacks.
Roging, in his typical nicety and being a former governor was well known in city hall.
He was hailed by many with warm greetings. So was my cousin Eddie. He served his three
terms as city councillor and with his usual wit and humor; quite a few did miss him. I
hardly knew anyone. Some however heard of me from what I wrote in the internet.
It was at the side table where I picked up about half a dozen architectural drawings.
They were all eye catching and impressive. These were also covered at the forum
discussion. These three dimensional drawings were all infrastructure projects and
supposed to be accomplished during the mayor's full term. It included a 12,000-seat
coliseum, City Park, Masao Port and the Buud Promontory. The mayor also talked about
it during the Balikbayan Night where he was the guest speaker.
I was not all familiar with revenues of the city. But with my little understanding
about infrastructures, I reckoned that these mega projects would cost an arm and a leg
with limited investment returns. His achievements as a mayor were already well
documented. He then just inaugurated the new library and made the new city hall
usable. The squatters at the riverbank were relocated, etcetera. Suffice to say that
his legacy was already with substance.
There were also numerous diggings in the streets indicating that the mayor was really
up on his heels to make the city nice. It was however after election and it couldn't
be helped for people to think that all these were just residue of an election ploy. He
won and these would just fade away and eventually back to normal grind as usual.
This tactic was basically in parallel to the old practice of putting the barrio folks
on payroll to work on feeder roads just weeks before Election Day. Some just put their
thumb mark, received their pay without working at all. It was an excellent way to use
public money to buy votes.
The projects mentioned would cost big bucks. Many wondered how the mayor would finance
it. There was just no possible way to materialize it. True that he pushed it hard but
reality appeared to be impractical. To the well-informed, his drawings were just
illusion; a product of wishful thinking. It was beyond means that to force it through
would bankrupt the city and would cause immeasurable discomfort to the population for
a generation. The price was too much considering that there were other demanding
priorities. His drawings therefore remained to be just a waste of ink.
Years did come to pass and no visible movement about the mayor's dream. People didn't
really care much for not so many believed it to come true anyway. Then lingering
illness drew him to a challenge of his life. We prayed for his recovery. He was still
in command and blazing news came out recently that our City Council did approve a city
loan for P975 billion payable in ten years with 8% interest with the PNB. This is
about P100 billion a year for ten years. Only Lawrence Fortun and Erwin Dano opposed
it.
The big question is why now? His term is about over in few months. His legacy is
already established as one amongst the few mayors who does well to the city and people
of Butuan. Why louse it up to mortgage the old, the young and the children for a
generation before he leaves? We could understand why the Sangguniang Panglunsod did
tolerate such madness for aside from the two opposing members, the rest are just a
bunch of Pinocchio's whose strings are reined in by the puppet master.
Maybe the mayor really believes that city hall is truly a dynasty. That each term is
not an administration of independent individuals, but exclusively an integral link to
his family. That his better-half is to assume his post anyway and should therefore
inherit by right to continually pursue his unfulfilled urges. What he is doing now,
while cahoots are still at hand, is to pave the way for easy access for his beloved
wife to persistently scratch his itch.
A notable lawyer and a former councillor said that if we know about banking process,
this deal is irregular. Another comment at the sideline stated that it is suicide. In
any way we look at it, this new and risky kind of midnight commitment will eventually
lock-in future city administrations with the recklessness and callousness of the one
that is about to end.
In his few remaining months as mayor, we just want him to be happy. We owed him that.
We rather see him build and leisurely float a sailboat. It could also be something
helpful to fishermen of Lombocan to use it after as a sapyaw.
We are indeed thankful for all the good things he did. The city owed him the gratitude
as one amongst the best. It was just lamentable that at the finish line, he wildly
endeavored on something that leads us to articulate that in enormous debt do we sadly
part.
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