By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
So I have heard but, frankly, there is no confirmation it is true. This is about the rumor that long time local politician Tony Boy Tabora and former City Mayor Peter Rey Bautista will team up to take over City Hall and the city’s lone congressional seat. Allegedly, Tabora will run for mayor while the latter will go for the congressional seat.
These two guys have the money to finance a winnable campaign and they had been in politics for quite some time that they had developed deep political roots. A number of their opponents might now be quaking in their boots if this rumor were true. For us ordinary kibitzers, however, it will make life even more interesting. There will be more actors on the political stage to watch and the suspense will be more intense. Because the more the candidates will be, the more unpredictable the results will be.
As more information filtered in, some corrections are in order regarding what I wrote here the other week. I said then that Councilors Peter Fianza, Elmer Datuin, and Lawana might be training their sights on the mayor’s office. The latest however that I heard is that these “wanna bes” are thinking of the vice mayor’s seat. Add to the list the name of Councilor Faustino Olowan—who might be the man to beat—and you have what appears to be a more complete vice mayoralty race.
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Reading the column of my neighbor here last week on Cha-Cha, I felt ashamed of myself. I should have been the one seriously writing about changing the constitution. Being a lawyer and having gotten a good if not a very good grade in Constitutional Law (all my other grades are better forgotten than remembered) in the college of law, I should know better than my batchmate at UP Los Banos, Dr. Danilo Padua.
But I could not have done what Danny did. My very good grade was obtained during my student days when “idealism” was burning or percolating inside me. After some years in practice however I have become cynical about the law, much more on how it is being applied. Especially Constitutional Law, more so during Tita Cory’s time when the so called reformists she appointed to important positions started making money while the sun was shining.
Disillusioned, my long held belief that it’s the kind of people running government who are the most important consideration, while the law in this country are a minor thing in the equation. Look, we have good laws but are they being implemented properly?
So, since then, my attitude was: “Constitution? What’s that?” It was the height of cynicism. So, a carefully crafted constitution? What difference will it make if the highest officials of the land are morally bankrupt?
My attitude now is implement federalism and let us see. It might be hell, bit it might turn out to be heaven. Perhaps some morally upright people will end up leading us. How? I don’t know.
I just might be too tired of many theoretical sweet talks that led us to nowhere the past many decades. Why don’t we try a new thing?**
