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Fr. Leo Pabayo

THE one who said “Tulo ra na ka pistahan” during the inauguration of Mayor Oscar Moreno three years ago was expressing a desire that the former mayor would stage a comeback and unseat the present local chief executive. He might have also desired that the next fiesta would be celebrated with the former mayor having already recaptured city hall.

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But this was spoken three years ago. Considering the recent political development in the city, it seems that this will not happen. The former mayor is too old and sickly to be able to effectively challenge Moreno. It has been suggested that Emano should already retire. He can hand over the leadership of his Padayon Pilipino party in the city to a younger member.

If Emano is no longer physically fit to discharge the duties of a mayor, he should no longer seek reelection. It will be an injustice to the city if he wins but is in no condition to fulfill his obligation to manage the affairs of the city. The Padayon Pilipino has to level with the people and choose someone in the party who is physically fit to do the job. This may be the daughter of Emano who can capitalize on his name.

The health condition of Dongkoy has increased the chances of Moreno in winning the next election. However, that does not mean that he has the election in the bag, for various reasons. He still has to hurdle several obstacles. The first one is his seeming lack of political “pakikisama” and smooth personal relationships with his own partymates.

The article of Herbie Gomez entitled, “Tug of War” reported that the allies of Moreno felt offended that Moreno did not bring them in to participate in the planning and implementation of the plans for the city. That is surprising because as a politician, he is expected to be good on personal relations and public relations.

One can glean from the article of Herbie Gomez that the reason might be that Moreno, being a technocrat and a high-level corporate lawyer with Ayala, was impatient with the usual give and take of ideas in the local government. If this was the usual style of governance as governor, one wonders how he was able to retain the loyalty of the people in the Capitol and those of his constituents that kept him in office for three terms. Will he be able to adjust to his new team that he has recently formed?

The apparent conflict between efficiency in governance and the Filipino culture of “pakikisama” has been the subject of study and discussion among Filipino sociologists and businessmen. If I remember right, the consensus is that the two have to go hand and hand.

The other obstacle that Moreno has to hurdle is the damage to his image that has been caused by the relentless barrage of criticisms coming from a hostile new radio station, Magnum Radio. This station is allegedly owned by Emano or by a business friend of Emano. The announcers of this station were formerly with the hard-hitting Radyo Bombo. They might have been pirated by Emano and given juicy contracts to use their talent to do a demolition job on Moreno. It may be that their salaries are bankrolled by the businessman friend of Emano who is rumored to usually win in the bidding for the projects of Emano.

For some time, the city has looked upon the rivalry between Emano and Moreno as shaping the political landscape of Cagayan de Oro.

But this political landscape underwent a sudden big change when Congressman Rufus Rodriguez unexpectedly jumped into the political fray and declared himself a candidate for the office of mayor.

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