ILIGAN City ― “In the afternoon, three o’clock/I read your letter/ahay, sa may bintana, ahay/sabay ang luha…”
This is a novelty song sung either by Max Surban or Yoyoy Villame which I remember when the incoming Mayor Lawrence Ll. Cruz said that after that fateful June 30 after he took his oath as city mayor in the afternoon of the said day in 2004, he went home. Thereby, thinking that his duty as mayor was to begin on July 1.
Cruz might be right in thinking that way. At the same time wrong! Who else would think as the mayor during the period afternoon of June 30, 2004 ― Franklin M. Quijano, the outgoing mayor? He was defeated by Cruz in the elections of 2004.
I am sure Quijano would not be very keen on that aspect! And I think there’s no law on that. Because it is understood. As to who the mayor is during that period.
Just like in an English class when we are taught that when we say, in a sentence: “Close the door,” there is a “you” that is understood. “Understood ‘you,’” the teacher had then said in an English class and I wasn’t absent at the time.
In this case, too, there is a mayor, as in “you are the mayor,” but who is the mayor here really during the period as in who will call the shots if something’s gonna happen at this point in time?
Some pundits say this is a gray area. In this case, understood “you” is not really understood as who this “you” is.
So, we could say that there might be a power vacuum at this point in time.
And nature they say abhors a vacuum. Although this is only a small matter.
So in this case during the period of June 30,2O22 afternoon of that day until 11:59, who is the mayor ― Celso Regencia, the outgoing mayor, or Frederick Siao, who had just taken his oath as such?
Thus, a “small ― big” question if there’s such a thing.
And the obvious answer is not really very obvious. At that point in time. As when we say, “This is very clear; as clear as muddy water.”
(Email: norasorino2@gmail.com)
