Rama needs his council

After a year in office, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama will address his constituents today to report on his performance thus far.

Breaking tradition, he will not be addressing the City Council but a crowd of City Hall employees, barangay representatives and guests.

With no invitation forthcoming from the council to deliver his State of the City Address, the welcome mat was pulled out from under his feet by his former allies in the Bando Osmena-Pundok Kauswagan.

It was a petty gesture, stemming from backyard politics. The lack of support and civility from the vice mayor and councilors, endorsed by BO-PK godfather Tomas Osmeña, who flay Rama for “disloyalty” to the party, is yet another hurdle for the three-term vice mayor to show his mettle as a leader.

How far can a mayor go steering a city by himself?

That is the symbolism of today’s Soca held on the steps of City Hall.

It’s an image that disturbs all who live in Cebu City and wonder how it can ever gain the unchallenged status of being the no. 1 most livable city in the country.

Intramurals in City Hall are of less interest to taxpayers than basic realities of Cebu City.

What is BO-PK clan loyalty compared to potholes in roads, streetflooding when it rains, uncollected garbage in plain view, crime that no longer gets reported to the police, traffic that gets crazier every year, and red tape in City Hall that dampens business enterprise.

These are just some of the problems Rama and other BO-PK candidates promised to fix when Cebuanos voted for them as a team in May 2010.

Are these urban struggles less of a problem today than in May 2010?

Not really, but Mayor Rama has given clear signs that he’s started to do things differently, even if they are, at the his stage, half-steps to a real solution.

He was stubborn about removing 35 shanties along a portion of the flood-prone Mahiga Creek. The small gesture (there are four other river-creek systems to deal with) was a loud one that lost him votes but bound him to the bigger challenge of implementing a 2004 Drainage Master Plan that his predecessor ignored.

He closed the Inayawan landfill in April. Now the laws on waste segregation and proper disposal have a fresh start in enforcement.

Rama warmed up relations with the Cebu governor and Capitol officials, ending a toxic word war. How he uses cooperation to resolve the 93-1 land settlers claims, the Ciudad project and his “super beautification” plans remain to be seen.

Rama does not have the sense of command of a Tommy Osmeña or the detailed vision of BO-PK’s cheiftain, who can draw the blueprint of the 300-hectare South Road Properties in his sleep.

We need both actually in Cebu City — a dogged attention to basic services and clear navigation of Cebu City’s single biggest infrastructure investment.

Now if only Rama and the Osmeña loyalists in the council can get their act together.