Firing away

Even with the conciliatory tone of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama in his State of the City Address (Soca), Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young and the City Council  won’t give him a break.

In a press conference  at Cebu City Hall last week, Young bluntly pointed out who’s at fault for the breakdown of working relations between the mayor and the council, insisting  clearly isn’t them: “This is my Soca to his Soca and it’s this: He started it.”

Ouch.   To think that the mayor credited the BO-PK councilors with their accomplishments, even mentioning them by name several times in his speech. Then again, Young pointed out that more than half of the achievements claimed by Rama were actually made by his predecessor and their benefactor, Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City ’s south district.

While it all boils down to the delivery of services and programs for Cebu City – and Young said they won’t let political differences stand in the way of their implementation – the divide between the mayor and the council can affect City Hall a number of ways.

Among the concerns is the continued employment of casuals and contractuals. Were they fired for non-performance on their political allegiance?

The 15 contractuals of the Department of Welfare for the Urban Poor (DWUP) were said to be loyalists of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) and it is their affiliation that supposedly the reason for their removal from service as part of Rama’s loyalty checks on City Hall’s rank and file.

Young certainly didn’t like that and warned that Rama would face a tit-for-tat over his consultants. With over 40 advisers at his disposal, the non-renewal of  contracts could be a real headache.  (However, only 10 are Rama’s hires, the rest holdovers from Osmeña’s court, so the ones to watch are these chosen 10.)

It is a cold reality for people in power to choose people within their inner circle owing to the trust factor that’s not available to outsiders.

Rama is  doing what other leaders before him have done.

But if City Hall wants to hold a standard for professional conduct, it should be able to explain the emrit of each non-renewal, each firing.

Loyalty checks  come with the territory but we have to question the basis for the evaluation that led to the removal of the 15 DWUP employees. Rama’s camp says these involved redundancies in work tasks. Right now though all we see and hear from Young and Rama are brickbats thrown not unlike in a schoolyard fight.

Both sides said they won’t let  political friction  affect the delivery of public services.  So while they engage in their petty power plays, we hope the biggest winner remains the Cebu City residents.