ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina—To quote a line from the book ‘Camino Ghosts’ by a favorite author, acclaimed writer John Grisham, ‘the fate of the people’—which in this column refers to the people of Cagayan de Oro City—hang in the balance if the elected leader is unfit for the position.’
By the time this column comes out—hopefully before the May 12 elections next Monday—every Kagay-anon would have known who won in the local elections so they could move on with their daily lives and face it with a renewed sense of purpose and determination to make each day better for them than what came before it.
Unlike here in the US where the terms of state and nationally elected officials come up for renewal every four years since well over a century, it was only with the 1987 ratification of the Constitution that local and national officials get elected every three—and in the case of the presidency and vice presidency—and six years.
But that topic is for another time. What I will talk about is the May 12 local elections in Cagayan de Oro City and Misamis Oriental, particularly in Cagayan de Oro City where former allies Oscar Moreno and incumbent Mayor Rolando Uy will square off against each other to see who will lead the City of Golden Friendship in the next three years.
And based on whatever feedback I received from friends and contacts in the city, it is former mayor Oscar Moreno who’s been actively reaching out to all stakeholders in the city in contrast to Mayor Uy, who prefers to focus on his bailiwick of Barangay Carmen and is content to ride his political machinery and his allies to victory on May 12.
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Oh and of course as in the case of the 2022 elections, the likelihood of who will win on May 12 depends largely in part on ‘if the price is right.’ That is, who the voters feel will offer the most money to buy their votes never mind what kind of people these candidates purport themselves to be on the campaign trail until they do get elected to office.
I’ve been cynical about the local elections since well before I left for the US in the mid 2000s based on my past media career covering the elections and serving as campaign advisor/spokesperson to some local candidates such as Moreno and Uy. Yeah even for some local candidates who ran for local posts whose character I hardly recognize anymore.
I’m telling you upfront that this piece will reflect my biases which run in favor of former mayor Oscar Moreno aka OSM. I’ve known the former congressman of Misamis Oriental’s first district and former governor of Misamis Oriental province before he ran and won as mayor of Cagayan de Oro City for three straight three-year terms and based on what I saw firsthand and the testimonies of so many Kagay-anons, OSM’s brand of leadership is the real deal.
In very sharp contrast, Mayor Rolando Uy, dubbed ‘Klarex’ by himself and his followers, looked to have digressed and exposed his over reliance on so many experts and those professing themselves to be experts to run his programs and administration of City Hall. As a result, it cannot be ruled out that these ‘experts’ have their own agenda or self-interest that may or may not dovetail with Uy’s declared program of governance.
He is by his own admission content to bring City Hall ‘closer to the people’ through doleout programs and services delivered via the old traditional one-on-one meetings that look more eye candy than actual deliverable results. As a former barangay captain and congressman who spends more time doling out pork barrel funds than actual legislative work, Mayor Uy wants to come across as a simple, relatable, accessible public official, albeit one that sadly lacks visionary leadership.
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The hallmarks of Uy’s administration if we can call it that were the two KSBs: the ‘Klarex Nga Serbisyo Sa Baryo (KSB)’ outreach program and another KSB, the Kasalan Ng Bayan (mass wedding). The first KSB being a derivative, rebranded version of the Barangay Outreach Program (BOP) and People to People Program of the late mayors Pablo Magtajas and Vicente Emano respectively.
These two men coincidentally were also former political allies that ran against each other for the city’s mayoralty post. While the outreach program is nothing new, I find the Kasalan to be a cheap political stunt by Mayor Uy aimed at scoring brownie points with the voters, a lot of whom may or may not be actual residents of the city or barangay where the Kasalan is being officiated by Mayor Uy.
The promise of free lechon (roasted pig) plus assorted goodies is too good to pass up for any willing couple and we’re not even talking about the reports of lechoneros complaining about unpaid orders piling up at City Hall. Oh yes, there’s also that ongoing exchange between the Moreno and Uy camps of the multi-million peso cash advances which can only be verified and investigated by the Commission on Audit (COA).
While OSM has his share of detractors, he faced them head on through dialogues and fora with stakeholders during and even after he stepped down from office. In contrast once he was elected, Mayor Klarex was content to surround himself with so-called experts, some of whom were holdovers from Moreno’s administration and some whose loyalty and agenda one can only describe as mercenary and self-serving.
I could go on and on about this but the sunset of the campaign period is fast approaching and Kagay-anons are faced with the decision of who will they choose to lead them in the next three years. Again, they can choose to vote someone like OSM whose vision for the city’s development through Metro Cagayan de Oro remains resonant and crystal clear or content themselves with re-electing Mayor Klarex whose idea of progress and development—as defined by his hallmark programs—is both parochial, traditional and politically regressive.
