Will power

What is  political will?

One website defines it  as “an abstract feature of political authority to enforce a certain act for the benefit of public welfare, an unconditional use of political power.”

Key words here – unconditional use,   political power,  public welfare. Political will is unencumbered by legalities and personalities. It is not  hindered by the shortcomings of its implementors or by machinations and willful destruction by its opponents.

We’ve seen several examples in recent weeks.

There’s the refusal by  Cebu City Hall and  the Capitol to host in  its local jail a “headache” inmate who shows ease in winning favors behind bars, murder suspect, former Lezo mayor Alfredo Arsenio.

There’s the non-arrest of convicted cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. who can hide out in Dinagat Island until the sun comes down. There’s President Benigno Aquino III’s surprising advice to Mindanao officials to yield to the privatization of power plants.

Closer to home, there’s  the admission by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia that they don’t want Arsenio to be detained in the Cebu city or provincial jail.

Their reason given was  that Arsenio can easily corrupt guards with  bribes. Less convincing is the line that Arsenio isn’t from Cebu, and that  local jails are mainly for Cebu perpetrators.

That speaks  volumes of  how vulnerable, or is it helpless,  the government-led management of jail personnel are in Cebu’s top detention centers.

How tragic that these fortresses built in barangay Kalunasan, equipped with security cameras,  can be so threatened by one  inmate, a non-Cebuano at that.

Cebu trial courts have built  a  reputation as  the  venue of murder trials  free of undue influence in cases involving slain journalists.

Several cases have been transferred to Cebu from high-risk areas in Mindanao, like the  2005 killing of graft-busting columnist Marlene Esperat of Sultan Kudarat. Her killers were eventually convicted and the mastermind exposed.

That’s why Arsenio’s case was transferred to Cebu as well, to neturalize his clout.      If he’s really the gunman who shot dead a Bombo Radyo station manager in Kalibo, Aklan eight years ago, he will find his justice in Cebu.

Is he that powerful,  to make the mayor and governor of Cebu fear hosting his stay while the court trial gets underway? Is he a security risk or just an embarrassment?

If Ecleo, the convicted congressman, is ever captured, would Cebu leaders also insist that he not be detained in the city or provincial jail since he is not from Cebu?

And that he is an even bigger “headache” than a town mayor who skips out for lunch in a restaurant with his custodial guard?