Things meaningful and beneficial needed

What made a fairly good splash in the news last Wednesday was the decision of Cebu City councilors belonging to Team Rama to give up their chairmanships in committees they still held despite the rival Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan or BOPK having already gained the majority in the legislature. The move was practical in a number of ways.

For one, relinquishing the chairmanships made sense as it no longer meant anything to cling to something you no longer control. It saves council deliberations from agonizing delays that can result from political but directionless hedging. For another, it affords the new minority the chance to claim graciousness and nobility in purpose.

But for all the attention it gained, it still remains to be seen whether, in the long run, the move truly amounts to anything meaningful and beneficial. The Cebu City Council, quite sadly, is not exactly your archetypal legislature. Despite its stature as the country's second most important city legislature, it has yet to measure up to such lofty standing.

The measures it churns out are sadly run- of-the-mill and lacking in imagination. As such they fail the lofty expectations of a city upon whom much is in turn expected, owing to its lofty stature. Cebu City is no ordinary city by any measure. In times past and present, Cebu City is way up there in worth and in value to this country.

And yet the Cebu City Council is not in step with the great and continuing march of its principal. There have been no landmark pieces of legislation to its name, legislative gems that are worthy of emulation by other local governments. Instead, there is a surfeit of "urging" and "lauding" measures -measures that urge this or that entity to do something, and then laud this or that entity for doing something it could not do itself.

It certainly would not come as a big surprise if people start wondering whether all that the members of the council ever do is be on the lookout for something to laud or someone to urge. And to think that Cebu City, as the second most important city in the country, needs a lot of things to be legislated in order for it to live up to its billing.