Ping-pong governance

With the filing of candidacies less than two months away, the plot thickens in City Hall and the Capitol.

Ping-pong governance has become the norm in City Hall with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama on one side and the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK)-dominated City Council on the other side of the table, sending volleys of attack and counterattack over legislative measures and policies.

At the Capitol, the animosity between Gov. Gwen Garcia and Cebu south district Rep. Tomas Osmeña just adds to the flint.

An anti-spanking ordinance was supposed to protect children from adult heavy handedness but got vetoed by the mayor.

Then an ordinance which clips his power to sell lots in the South Road Properties (SRP) was fired by the BO-PK, earning another veto.

This week Supplemental Budget No. 2 was sent back to the mayor with the council’s criticism that no available funds were certified, especially for the mayor’s campaign promise of additional subsidy for senior citizens.

But the same City Council is saying a Supplemental Budget No. 3 is welcome, as long as it includes a P130 million outlay to pay heirs of the Rallos clan, whose money claim over disputed land in the city the mayor refuses to pay.

The latest pingpong ball is an aborted 2007 land swap deal which the BO-PK is reviving as a major campaign promise for almost 5,000 urban poor settlers occupying province-owned land in Cebu City.

Before the signatures could dry on the resolution that promises to provide land tenure, Gov. Gwen Garcia said she would have nothing to do with this “irrelevant” proposal.

The solution she cooked up with Vice President Jejomar Binay, a major ally for the 2013 elections, is one that involves direct acqusition by homeowners from the Capitol through lot sales or the national government’s socialized housing program.

In a dramatic stroke last Wednesday, the City Council held its session in barangay Luz to reach out to 93-1 settlers.

The exercise was clearly a return volley to Gwen’s snubbing a revival of the land swap.

This again pits the BO-PK City Council and Osmeña against allies Rama and Garcia.

In the process, children, senior citizens and urban settlers stand as collateral damage in an escalating political conflict.

Government institutions and political leaders are supposed to serve the needs of marginal members of society, not shoot them in the crossfire.

It may be wishful thinking, but little gods need reminding.