Cebu Daily News / Opinion

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COLOR OF WATER Color of Water : Of winners and losers By Malou Guanzon-Apalisok Cebu Daily News Posted date: January 09, 2009 Cebu City Mayor on leave Tommy Osmena appears to be responding well to chemotherapy treatment for his cancer of the urinary bladder, thanks to A-1 medical care at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. However, it is a well known fact that high-end drugs and health facilities cannot ensure total remedy. Patients need to cooperate with doctors’ orders and close family members also have to collaborate by giving the ill all the loving support they can give. In this connection, Tommy can count his blessings. Alongside material resources needed for stateside medical treatment and his personal resolve to battle the disease, he also has by his side, 24/7 his wife Margot and son Miguel. I hope and pray he is on his way to full recovery. Meanwhile, former Cebu vice governor John-john Osmeña can now look forward to a better year after the court denied the motion for reconsideration the Department of Justice filed against him in connection with the 2004 drug smuggling case. Prospects of a political comeback are dim, as his mother and other relatives are reportedly against it. But because John-John comes from a political family nothing is really certain at this point. As has often been said, naglatay sa iyangdugo ang politika. What is apparent is that he could not have secured legal victory without his father, former senator John “Sonny” Osmeña. John-john was in the US all throughout when the DOJ filed the case up to its dismissal by the Cebu Regional Trial Court. Of course, veteran lawyer Edgar Gica handled the legal nitty gritty, but Sonny also vehemently defended his son in public. The relationship between Sonny and John-john was badly strained during the 2004 elections when John-john insisted on running for governor against the advice of his father. The drug smuggling controversy damaged both their candidacies and resulted in Sonny’s first ever political debacle. I think that with time and in the course of slugging it out in the court, the legal challenge brought some healing to the relationship between Sonny and John-john. * * * Among local government units whose city status was voided by the Supreme Court, Mati appears to be the biggest loser. Prior to cityhood, the principal town of Davao Oriental stood out among the group of municipalities vying for city status because its annual local income - estimated to be P90 million - was slowly nearing the lawful income required of towns to become cities. Among other conditions, Section 450 of RA 9009 as amended sets a minimum of P100 million annual local income requirement for towns to become cities. However, Mati’s growing economy, albeit still short of P10 million to become a city by LGC standards provided the basis for suggesting that Congress should take a closer look at capital towns of provinces that do not have a city because with a little help from the national government’s Internal Revenue Allotment, lgu-performers could realize their huge potentials. This was the underlying principle of HB 5737, a policy bill authored by former Congressman Mayo Z. Almario (2nd district, Davao Oriental) during the 13th Congress. The bill was specifically intended for provinces without a capital city but has a booming capital town with local annual income that could, in a matter of time, equal the revenue of full-fledged cities. Unlike in cityhood laws where municipalities were granted exemptions from the LGC criteria and which later became the basis for SC’s decision to strip the 16 towns of their city status, the suggestion of easing the steep income requirement on struggling capital towns looked sound from the legal point of view. It was open to all capital towns provided they comply with requirements in terms of population (150,000) territory (contiguous, 100 square kilometers) and annual local income (at least P80 million). Whatever legal complexities HB 5737 created with respect to the LGC would have to be reconciled, but by easing the income requirement a little, the bill could motivate capital towns to improve on delivery of basic services, which, when coupled with good governance would make their areas conducive to investment inflows. All told, I thought the proposal didn’t only give Mati a sporting chance to become a city but also championed the cause of capital towns. It’s unfortunate that former congressman Almario didn’t pursue HB 5737 and that his successor in the district, Thelma Z. Almario, Mayo’s own mother, opted to seek Mati’s conversion into city, as did 15 other lgus, through the expedient but fatally defective cityhood laws.