How exactly will Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo consult "the people" regarding the proposal from the Naga City Executive Council on Tercentenary Celebration to move the schedule of the civic-military parades?
We ask this question in view of the news that the confused mayor cannot decide on the said proposal which emanated from a council of his own creation. Why create a council which is tasked of sorting out the matter at hand only to proclaim afterwards that "the people" would need to be consulted? Had the proposal been to retain the schedule of these said activities, would Mayor Robredo declare that "the people" need to be consulted? Incidentally, was "the people" consulted regarding the experimental traffic scheme at Panganiban Drive?
As they say: pag gusto, dakul nin paagi; pag habo, dakul an razon.
Robredo's administration had always prided itself in being popular, deluding itself into thinking that popularity is the same as "democratic governance." Due this, its greatest fear is to be unpopular: consider the implementation, or shall we say "non-implementation," of City Ordinance No. 95-070, otherwise known as the "Ordinance Prohibiting Tobacco, Cigar And Cigarrete Smoking In Public Places, And Providing Penalties For Violations Thereof." When it was popular to be considered "Smoke-free," Robredo's Administration judiciously implemented the said ordinance. When its popularity was assailed, given that even among City government personnel many smoke in public places, Robredo's Administration relaxed its observance of this ordinance. Urged lately to enforce this law, Robredo turned a deaf ear knowing that to heed such a demand would make him unpopular.
With the severe and still unanswered criticisms hurled at him and his administration for the past two years regarding the commercialization and prostitution of the Peñafrancia Fiesta, Robredo has opted to hide behind his perceived popularity among "the people." And it is to them, that he now turns regarding the decision to act on the proposal of his own executive council.
While there is nothing wrong about consulting the public-in fact, it is laudable in general-we can only wonder with much apprehension how exactly does Robredo's Administration intend to achieve this. Will the mayor initiate a referendum? If so, we ask: where will he get the funds for that? Further, would it be wise to spend on the referendum at a time of an economic recession? Or will Mayor Robredo conjure results from some survey (whose validity as representative of "the people's" views on the issue is very contestable) as basis for the city government's decision?
One expects that the reason such a council had been formed was to evade these difficulties. Mayor Robredo might have had other intentions. We strongly believe that the proposal to move the parades that arose from the council's deliberations was unacceptable to Naga's popular mayor. And he now relies on that popularity to overturn his council's proposal.
As they say: pag gusto, dakul nin paagi; pag habo, dakul an razon.