SACRIfiCE

Just what is sacrifice? Perhaps the clearest and most unambiguous meaning of the word sacrifice was that given by God himself when he gave his only son for the forgiveness of sin. But then God is God. Former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama, who often invokes God, cannot be relied upon to be as precise.

At a recent press conference, Rama said he was willing to make a political sacrifice if it was for the good of the people of Cebu City. But because Rama’s heart clearly bleeds at the thought of making t hat sacrifice, and because he is a man of so many words, he ends up appearing to be unwilling to make that sacrifice even if he is saying he will.

Rama can claim that it was nothing more than a tactical mistake that made him lose the mayorship to Tomas Osmeña in the last election. And maybe it was. But it does not follow that a rematch is automatic. Political landscapes are not as firm as terra firma. Politics is volatile. Situations shift and change all the time.

And whether he accepts it or not, things have happened in the meantime that he is plain private citizen Rama that can make any run by him to retake the mayorship disastrous for both himself and his party. If Rama truly wants to make a sacrifice, he needs to do it without any ifs or buts.

Perhaps it would help if he disabuses his mind that the chance for political leadership is some form of entitlement. That is precisely why elections are held --to give as many of the other willing souls a chance to lead. If Rama has done Cebu City well, then he will go down in history as one of its greatest leaders.

But there is no such thing as leadership in perpetuity. Rama has to give others in his party the chance, the same chance he himself was given when, in this strange world of politics, he and Osmeña were still friends. That chance now belongs to Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.

Rama should reserve his ifs and buts to when Labella shall have been given his chance and thus accordingly judged and assessed. If and when Labella shall have been given his crack at leadership of this city of roughly a million people and found wanting, then and only then should Rama have the right to claim he can do better.

Rama has nothing to lose by stepping aside. Stepping aside is not a political loss. It is a sacrifice which, as he himself likes to make it appear, is something morally admirable. If he does not step aside and loses, which many believe is a big possibility, it will mean the end of his political career. If Labella loses, it is Labella’s loss. If he wins, the city Rama professes to love wins.

‘If Rama truly wants to MAKE A SACRIfiCE, HE NEEDS TO DO

it without any ifs or buts.’