Leadership

Bencyrus Ellorin

ADVENT is the season of waiting for the coming of the Savior, the Messiah. In Christian teaching, the coming of the Messiah is the birth of the Son of God – Jesus Christ who will later on die on the cross to save humanity from the ultimate penalty of sin – death.

Advent means hope. The birth of Christ gives everyone a chance to live amidst imperfections and sinfulness.

In secular terms, advent — the Christmas season is a time for joy, giving and celebration of life. In more mundane terms, Christmas is an excuse to party, party and party. It is a time when the number of glasses of wine, eating cholesterol-laden and sugar-laced food and expenses for all those should not be counted.

But while we celebrate advent, the season of hope for all to live, debates are afoot whether to bring back the death penalty in our criminal justice system. A pall of gloom also casts with the rising death, 6,000 and counting in the government’s ruthless war against drugs.

Ironic!

At City Hall, after days of heated exchange between two senior officials over an alleged slapping incident, photos on Facebook showed the parties shaking hands. Smiling.

Critics had hoped the incident involving the alleged slapping by Councilor Zaldy Ocon on Road and Traffic Administration traffic deputy Ric Emmanuel Agustin over a citation ticket would escalate and eventually become a dilemma for Mayor Oscar Moreno.  Trying to mend things with the fiery councilor, RTA overseer lawyer Edgardo Uy was thrown in a tit-for-tat with the councilor; escalating with calls for the RTA head to resign.

But Mayor Moreno, in a display of leadership did not allow the issue to muddle business at City Hall. He talked with Ocon, a political ally, and declared that Atty. Uy stays. What the mayor and his loyal political supporter talked about remains with the two gentlemen.

That was a show of stable leadership.

As with the RTA deputy, I think it is well within his rights to pursue what he thinks best serves justice. Councilor Ocon on the other hand is a veteran politician who knows full well the consequences of the incident to his political stock.

I have observed some of the budget hearings and it is interesting how members of the City Council, thought to be friendly to the mayor, grill department heads over their proposed 2017 budget. The budget hearings has been presided by erstwhile oppositionist Kagawad Inday Dahino who has obviously done her homework of scrutinizing the proposed P5 billion 2017 budget line-by-line. Discussions are sometimes heated, but over-all constructive.

The system of check and balance is finally functioning well at the City Hall. And yes, even in the Ocon-RTA spat, check and balance was at work. I agree with opposition Councilor Leon Gan who was quoted as saying the issue belongs to the Blue Ribbon Committee of the City Council, not the mayor’s.

The year 2016 is bidding farewell. It started with political divisiveness. And as things turned out later, the City Hall machinery ran in full force.

Like the message of Advent, 2017 is sure to be full of hope and many, many, more.

E-mail: bency.ellorin@gmail.com