Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A Call to Action for a City in Transition


For almost half of my life, I only know your family name as the mayor of my birthplace.

Under your watch, I have seen this city rise from a place that is not even included in TV patrol’s weather bulletin to a thriving hub that has attracted big brands and big corporations. Under your watch, I have seen Divisoria rise from its sleepy obscure status to a center of local commerce. And under your watch we’ve seen a slowly defining skyline with flyovers albeit weirdly colored sprout in and around the city. Yes, it is true. I felt economic growth under your watch but as any economics student understands, economic growth can only last when the systems and structures that support it grows with it or else things will collapse under its own weight. Crime will soar, incomes will stagnate health will deteriorate . And this is exactly why I embraced the need for your brand and style to go.

We are transitioning as a city from highly urbanized to a metropolitan area, that is the center of gravity in the region. And this transformation calls a new kind of political leadership . One that does not merely transact the affairs of the city or worse, run it like a business or source of livelihood, but transforms the public institutions within it. This is important and that is also why this victory is historic and critical as well. Historic in a sense that it shattered the seeming invincibility of the Emano brand . Critical in a sense that majority of the solons of city hall still have their hands tied with the old style.

And this in itself poses a rare and great opportunity. The campaign for the candidacy of Moreno has been composed not only of Liberal Party political operatives and allied coalitions but it includes in its ranks a spectrum of local NGOs and Civil Society Groups whose rootedness in community concerns capacitates it to engage fruitfully with the political leadership . A Mayor who won by these broad support and trust opens the door for these sectors to directly engage the political leadership. And this is a chance we never had before in recent memory.

Let us make full use of it. Let us make Hapsay a real thing. And this requires us to organize ourselves in the ground and strategically engage with the  new leadership under the agenda put forward during the campaign. History has taught us that reform oriented leaders fail or get eaten up by the rotten deals of the system when there is no reform oriented constituency to support and engage them. And let us not forget the youth. They play a very vital role in organizing and developing this reform oriented constituency. It is their sheer energy, population,  tech savvy, fresh ideas and burning idealism that would make this project more cohesive and long term. And glad to know that these are the ones who rallied behind the campaign.   

So let us not commit those mistakes in this exciting point in our national story. Cities play a vital role in our national economic development. And for these cities to work, its local public institutions have to be put into proper order. Institutions such as the local school boards, the RTA, the local social service, the health centers, the development councils, the budget and the like must be diagnosed or better yet, dissected so that all can see where the cancer lies. These local institutions are the closest to the people and its state of health are immediately felt and its efficiency or lack thereof spells the big difference in poverty alleviation, city development and risk reduction.  We learned that before the hard and deadly way.

All politics is local as they say. This can never be more true now. The politics of Tuwid na Daan is a national call that sees its face in the locality. It is the LGUs, the more basic unit of government that drives this forward. And most importantly, it is the audacity and commitment of the citizens of these LGUs which will ultimately spell a better city, a better province, a better Philippines. 

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