commentary Go, sail in the sunset, mayor
Go, sail in the sunset, mayor
Friday, 03 February 2012 00:00
ONE day, almost 50 years ago, my mother, Helen Cababarros Bacarro who married Segundo Velez-Gabor Carrasco, went to the river near City Hall to wash clothes, and I volunteered to help. Of course, as a child I was less interested in helping than frolicking in the waters. I almost drowned when I slid towards a deeper portion of the river, but managed to kick back to shallower waters. Then, we had fun going up to the hills in Upper Camaman-an and Indahag to gather firewood and be merciless with the birds with our slingshots, then jumping into some deep waters of Camaman-an creek where carabaos would wallow. Along Legaspi St. (now Cruz Taal) we would play "bato-lata," "kondisi," and on moonlit nights, "patintero," after marking the dirt road with water. I could remember there were still some banana plants and horseshit in Divisoria where people would stroll. When it's Christmas time, we kids would go to Macabalan to harvest branches of the "piyapi" which we would sell to be used as Christmas tree, and come independence day, we'd go around the streets to sell independence day flags. Oh, it was fun!
I am a pure Cagayanon. My grandfather on my mother's side is the late Mariano Tabique- Bacarro, known as "Anoy," of whom the late gentleman and Chief of Police Macrino Bacal, and the good dentist, the late Dr. Borja, and ex-barangay captain Carmelito Damo, and the old Chinese businessmen being bullied by the natives-knew and heard so much of. On my father's side, I can proudly say that the late General Apolinar Velez, the local hero who decisively defeated the American soldiers in the battle of Macahambus cave, is my great granduncle, the brother of my great grandfather, Salvador Velez, Sr.. Indeed I love the city and my bloodline, but it is the lives of many others, Cagayanon or not, that I'm concerned about.
Mayor Jaraula's and Mayor Emano's disregard of the DENR warnings way back in 2007 and September of 2011 that the "pisopiso" resettlement program endangered the lives of people and who should be relocated, and Emano's disregard of the weather bulletins or warnings issued by Pagasa, and their failure to put up a crisis management or rescue center on the night the typhoon struck, and the dumping of the bodies at the Landfill or "basurahan," and their approval of the construction of the Pelaez building and the new city hall building on the river banks or waterway, and the Landfilling of one side of Isla de Oro-make them and their puppet councilors distinctly liable, legally and morally.
Emano will be remembered as a dictatorpolitician with a naughty charisma, magnetic voice, and a good command of the Cebuano and English language and who liberally used the baseball bat on human beings. I would like to think he has good intentions for the people and the city, and for himself most especially. But intentions are not enough. There were several political onslaughts against him, even by political giant Nene Pimentel, but he ably stood his ground using Machiavellian and dirty tactics. He and the puppet councilors contracted the UKC to build the Cogon and Carmen markets under the BOT or Build Operate Transfer program, wherein no public money would be spent. UKC would collect the rentals, and after 25 years, UKC would transfer ownership of the markets to the city.
In just a few years, Emano and his cohorts paid UKC almost P500 million, junking the BOT contract! Of course, there were other anomalies-so many that even Atty. Manolo Tagarda, who briefly served as mayor before the 1998 elections, would have difficulty counting them with his fingers. In the last election, where he questionably won by just one percent against our client, Klarex Uy, he and his tacticians, with the support of the big-time contractors, turned off the PCOS machines or election computers at midnight, anomalously pulled out the flashcards containing the returns, then switched them with manipulated flashcards on the way to the canvassing center at City Hall. To hide the machinations, they had to throw into the "basurahan" or Landfill election paraphernalia. Uncannily, Emano made a second serious mistake, and this time it was deadly serious: he threw into the Landfill bodies washed by the flood. He admitted openly on TV that he ordered the dumping because the dead were emitting foul odor at the Bulua funeral parlor. When a public protest or uproar ensued, suddenly and shamelessly, a subaltern or subordinate makes the claim that she gave the order to dump the bodies at the Landfill.
The problem is, Emano keeps on calling the devil-- "mga pesteng yawa." And perhaps the devil finally heard him on that fateful night of Dec. 16. At midnight, the election cheating took place, and at midnight of Dec. 16, the devilish flood came and destroyed thousands of lives. Sadly, Emano and his puppet councilors will have to suffer, too. Every night for the rest of their lives they will suffer from their nightmares, and they will hear the cries for help and feel the pain and anguish of those who lost their loved ones. And from all indications, the Emano empire is now at the sunset. So Mayor, please go, sail in the sunset, and may you have peace!
(Mariano B. Carrasco is a Cagayan de Oro-based lawyer.)
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