By BenCy G. Ellorin

PERHAPS Oca Moreno is ahead of his time. What is clear though is that he is the leader Cagayan de Oro needs and Misamis Oriental would need.

But as a true leader, Mayor Moreno would rather spell out the convenient truth in the battle against Covid than sugarcoat things to give people a false sense of security. The right information leads to better decisions. Decisions that would eventually be done collectively, by the community.

Consensus building is a function of leadership, of governance. In backward societies, leadership is pure power. He or she who has wealth holds power and people depend on them. In feudal societies like the Philippines, he who owns the lands -- the landlord rules over the peasants.

The vote, to the traditional politicians, just becomes a number, a commodity. Patronage politics wants the people to remain helpless and ignorant of their rights and collective power.

These traditional politicians then misuse the media to create a perception of continuing consent. In recent history, that went on for 15 years until the people got fed-up and changed leadership, the brand of leadership at the City Hall. Sendong tragedy became the last nail in the coffin of the Emano regime.
Patronage politics is what ails Oro and MisOr politics. Oca Moreno is the panacea.

Now the vestiges of this fallen regime want to revert the advances of governance in Cagayan de Oro. Using falsities and hate, they want to replicate the Sendong narrative with the Covid 19. Sendong was isolated and its impact could have been mitigated; Covid 19 is a pandemic.

On the contrary, Mayor Moreno’s handling of the Covid 19 pandemic has so far been good, especially if you consider the odds. What his critics want to project is that CDO is doing very badly in handling the pandemic is not backed by facts.

Even countries with the most modern health systems have seen their modern systems overwhelmed. Among highly urbanized cities in the country, Cagayan de Oro City remains to have one of the lowest figures.

While government leadership is needed in Covid 19 response, indubitably the whole response should involve the community. The response should be owned by the community.

What is expected of the government's response is to ramp up the capacity of the public health system. Something that Mayor Moreno has done with the construction of the City Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Disease (CERIED) facility in San Simon, the expansion of the JR Borja Hospital, the fast-tracking of the construction of the Lumbia hospital, conversion hotels and dorms are isolation facilities, investment in a testing capacity.

On the other side of the Covid 19 response is behavior change, anchored on the non-pharmaceutical interventions of wearing a face mask, hand and cough hygiene, social distancing, and staying at home as much as possible. I think it is high time for people to collectively realize their part of the Covid response bargain. Police work to enforce this is just secondary.

Then the social responsibility of getting vaccinated. While the local government moves mountains to get vaccine doses, people should line up to get jabbed.

Economically crippling quarantine protocols are temporary stop-gap measures. Eventually, if we are to collectively lick the virus, we have to live and eventually outlive it.

Creating that consensus, that collective behavior change is the central theme of the daily Covid pressers of Mayor Moreno. He has been persistent. Extremely persistent in calling on the people to have ownership of the Covid response as he accomplishes the other side of the response bargain – the improvement of our public health system to address the preventive and curative aspects of the Covid 19 response.

Could you imagine the JR Borja hospital circa 2012 at this time of pandemic?

Mayor Moreno is transparent to a fault. The previous rulers of the city would have tried to cover up the real impact of Covid 19, just as its minions are now doing in Misamis Oriental.

I have no doubt the people understand. They have embraced the brand of Mayor Moreno’s leadership, even under siege in 2016 and 2019.

For the people of Misamis Oriental, just imagine your lost opportunities if you make the wrong decision in 2022.