No to bullies in the city council

Churchill Aguilar

I DO not mind who wins as mayor and vice mayor but I insist to influence everyone not to vote for the councilors who caused the gridlock in the city hall, i.e., the incumbent “violet” city councilors. Whether they acted under duress from the pressures of their head or not, they should be held full accountable for holding hostage the Cagay-anons for three years in their attempt to paralyze the mayor from materializing his visions for the city.

It is not even a question of whether I am in favor of the mayor or not because I have been critical about his performance, and I am not always in agreement with a lot of his decisions for the city.  We voted for them (the councilors) with the hope that they can bring about good in our city and not stop it. Their ultimate allegiance should be to the people after being voted into office. I don’t mind that they have to be especially critical with every program, project and activity of the mayor after all that is their job, but there were glaring evidence that even the most obviously good projects proposed by the mayor such as solving the garbage issue were met with stern block by the violet council. Such attitudes were upfront capricious, excessive and unwarranted.

The clear message they painted: “Make our mayor win, or else we will put the city hostage in the next three years. If our head wins with us, we will make your dreams come true, but if not, we will be your worst nightmare!”

The sad thing is that these councilors were once very brilliant and very good at what they do.  Thus explains why they won.  Well, again, that was when the mayor was their partymate.  It is not therefore an issue of skills and caliber. It is a simple issue of values and principles. A principled man and a value-driven leader knows how to listen to other people’s stand be it his superior or his enemy, but more importantly he knows how to make a stand especially when the welfare of the Cagay-anons are at stake.

When the violet councilors made a stand of making a solid block against anything that the mayor does (be it good or bad) and committed themselves right from the start to the very end to such objective, they inadvertently betrayed the people, us, because we were the ones who got deprived of development.

But past is past. The question is, are we stupid enough to make such mistake again? I say no.

Again, I do not mind if Emano or Oca or Rufus wins. It does not even matter who wins as vice mayor. That is not the issue. The three mayoral candidates have shown that they are thinking politicians, and they all have had their shares of greatness too. But I would mind if we vote back into office councilors with no backbones or those who do not put Cagay-anons as their first priority, however brilliant they may be.