By Farah G. Decano

 

VICE Mayor BK Kua and Councilor Michael Fernandez displayed honorable demeanor during the rambunctious regular session last Tuesday. In the face of very disruptive and cantankerous behavior of some councilors, they were able to restrain themselves from releasing a punch or two and land their fists on the faces of those who were provoking them.

I cannot guarantee if I would be reacting in the same manner as Vice Mayor Kua and Councilor Fernandez did.  I don’t have a high amount of aggressive and raging testosterones in my female body, but this display of disrespect before my presence would have triggered my mother’s gene that is responsible for my passion and temper. I might have gone down from the presiding officer’s podium, challenged these thugs to a fist fight or I might have outshouted them to put them in their place.

But since half of me is from my father, his very sober trait in me probably would have overcome my mother’s protein sequence.  I might have laughed at their quarrelsome conduct and considered them as infantile.  I might have reminded them to reserve their outbursts when they lose in the 2025 elections.  I would have called their rowdiness as sign of “premature defeatism.”  Oh yes, my father had this way of hitting back with wry humor.

I bet the next question would be, how did my father manage staying married to a very fierce woman?  Well, Papa made sure that they did not fight.  They merely argued.  Who won during their arguments?  Mama.  Because, Papa was very smart. He made mama win all the time.

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The public is probably feeling the effect of the approved 2023 budget. Various hard and soft infrastructure projects are finally starting and thousands of scholars are assured for at least a year of education. The city residents are now realizing, “pwede pala ang mga project na ito, sayang at bakit kasi ngayon lang.”  The blame on the oppositionist local legislators is all the more magnified.

 The oppositionist councilors who are in the majority block failed to calculate their moves. They were right about asking who the job-orders employees and consultants are. After all, the funds for their payments are not classified as confidential. They, however, sacrificed public welfare for the sake of pressuring the executive to reveal her list.  

 Very wrong move.

 These majority councilors also sacrificed the public trust granted to them by the populace.  To avoid this, they could have asked the Commission On Audit to hammer on the executive or could have used the budget hearings wisely to ferret out the truth. The oppositionists could have also conducted a discreet investigation to verify such information gathered during the meetings. 

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The proposed 2024 budget is about to be submitted next week. Methinks, the opposition will again delay the enactment of the its authorization ordinance.  These majority councilors should learn from Kabataan Partylist, Raoul Manuel. He did not merely inquire into Vice President Sara Duterte’s budget for the sake of delaying it. He asked very pointed questions which were every relevant and close to the heart of the people.  Guess what?  He successfully elicited public doubts about the VP’s performance.  Her trust ratings severely declined.

Despite being in the minority, Representative Manuel was able to cause dent in Congress.  Yes, he roars like a lone lion in a forest filled with chimpanzees and hyenas.   I think we know what the majority councilors chose to be in the last session.

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