Machiavellian suicide?

Tis the season to be jolly! Christmas appears to have arrived much earlier for Mayor Michael Rama and Vice-Mayor Edgardo Labella. Malacañang has just given them and their allies the gift of victory ahead of the coming polls via another suspension, this time for six months.

A very reliable source of mine told me that the business community is set to go all-out for the beleaguered mayor and his teammates and ensure a landslide victory for them.

These businessmen, accordingly, are not just appalled but totally exasperated at this latest machination from Imperial Manila on the local affairs of the country’s second city. What with clearly reliable information that the complaint filed against them had apparently been recommended for dismissal by the hearing officer assigned by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, only to be overturned in Manila.

Pre-Christian Romans believed that when someone gets mad, he or she must have displeased the gods and will soon be destroyed, giving rise to the saying, “Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” Something had apparently transpired between the transmittal of the report and its opposite outcome when it reached Malacañang. There seems to be a mad dash to ensure that Rama and his people will be out of city hall at all costs, even if it means collateral damage on the part of the opposition.

There is nothing more appropriate to describe this wanton display of power than to call it madness. Why do this with the elections just around the corner? What were these people in Malacañang thinking? Do they really think this will ensure Mike Rama’s and his teammates’ defeat in the polls?

Someone in Malacañang or close to Malacañang has apparently misread the 16th century Italian political thinker and diplomat Nicolo Machiavelli’s adage that the end justifies the means, no matter how ugly and immoral.

My take on this latest round is that the complaint was planned to be heard and then decided upon way before the election season officially started. But the problem with plans is that, as the saying goes, they are also prescriptions for disaster. When one part of the plan goes awry, things get out of hand.

And so what was intended to be a sure thing has now become the very weapon that Team Rama can wield to show that they are being oppressed by a jittery political power center on its final months of running the country. And, along with it, are the collateral casualties coming from the opposition who must probably wonder now whether they are being sacrificed for some narrow political agenda or not.

It is as yet too early to predict the outcome of the elections in Cebu City, but this latest punishment from the powers that be is painting Team Rama into an underdog.

I had warned about this in a previous column during the start of Rama’s two-month suspension in December last year: that Cebuanos will probably kowtow to the first suspension but will not countenance a second one, and one that, if the records are correct, was originally destined for the trash bin.

One does not need history to judge whether Malacañang has acted correctly in this instance. Come May 9, the Cebuano voters will make that judgment.

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My congratulations to Pickers Choice, the gift and curio shop owned by my good friend Dave Bryan Latonio, on its first anniversary on Monday, 18 April. I understand that Pickers Choice will have its anniversary sale that day and will offer 50 percent discount on all items in the shop.

Dave is also leaving shortly for Europe as part of his work with an international financial management firm. He will be in London, Berlin and Stockholm, among other cities, for about six weeks. Bon voyage, Dave!