A Sense Of Unity

By Ped T. Quiamjot

THE city economy partly slowed down in January as an aftermath of the Typhoon Sendong disaster. Air and land travel to Cagayan de Oro declined. Hotel occupancies went down and the retail business are accumulating a huge inventory. The banking sector has low deposit base and no one was borrowing money to fund capital expense. If there were significant banking transactions it was the heavy withdrawals for reconstruction and repairs.

Relatively, with the catastrophe, there was no other momentum in the city to carry the buying spree on the last quarter of 2011. . The economy after all just expanded 3.7 percent last year compared to the 7.6 percent growth in 2010. The national government declaration of priming up the economy by injecting money into infrastructures for the national and local government remains to be seen in the construction industries. Trading of steel, cement and heavy equipment rentals is hardly felt. Much more the under employment figures for January in our region went up to 26.3% compared to the 22.9% of the last quarter of 2011. Many are without jobs today compared to last year.

On the national scene, a distraction to business and investment over the last 10 days is showing up on the dictum of trustworthiness of public officials. The Corona Impeachment is starting to reveal how people in the higher echelon of government are suspects in the misuse of public and donor funds over issues of ill gotten wealth?

While in the local scene, we have a City Official accused of “incompetence and ineptness in handling crisis and governance”. There was a crisis per see and of course it was not a normal way of life for all of us. We cannot expect a superman or a miracle to be created by any official. There are paradigms of leadership and they are entitled to their ideas on how to resolve a crisis.
Productivity of a city is wasted over innuendos and doubts whether our high officials are fit to govern. Much more the whole bureaucracy of the local government unit is distracted and pre-occupied defending themselves. Should we join the mob and contribute in aggravating a situation into a worst case scenario of lost of confidence on leadership?

In management, there is a curve called focus and attention to the objectives. There are targets set forth to accomplish a task and there are time frames allocated for the accomplishment of the management objectives. If there were 30 days wasted over bickering, definitely, there is a set back to the goal. There are only 365 days to accomplish a government fiscal program in a year, deduct 30 days, how many days are left and how much public funds are wasted? It’s our money in the first place.

People who have nothing to do or officials who want to build a name to increase their political stocks have nothing to lose. But have we imagined of incumbent and elected officials who are voted by the people to make decisions over the path of their constituents at the losing end? If the charges are not proven otherwise, then we have unfairly treated that official since public opinions are already made.

Slowdowns of local business are the making of social and political diversity which undermines a good climate to invest. If we cannot put our acts together and instead dwelt on agitation instead of rallying to the leadership of our city, no new investor will come because of the perception of instability.

This is proven in the turmoil of Egypt. There was a mounting call for the removal of Hosni Mubarak and they succeeded in forcing his resignation. But have they improved their economy after one year? The same group of protesters is back on the streets. The economy of Egypt remains starved when they should be earning so much tourist receipts from the many wonders of the world found in their country. Foreign visitor stopped coming for fear of instability. Foreign expats went home to their countries to avoid being caught in crossfire. New technologies that drive industries and vital communications which were operated by the expatriates were shutdown. Their actions made it more difficult for their constituents to earn a living.

The public sentiment voiced by a recent Cagayan de Oro visitor, Senator Chiz Escudero that “this is no time to change leadership” needs a second thought among the proponent to oust the City Mayor. When business starts to suffer, should adversity be allowed to prevail? Perhaps a public sense of unity and to rally behind the leadership of the City Mayor is easier to accomplish?

The economic upheaval in Europe and the slow recovery of the American and the Japanese economy which ranks high as our trading partners lurks in our midst. It should caution us to localize the economic impact and to take care of our city in unity.

Ped T. Quiamjot is one of the brilliant columnists of a local newspaper in Cagayan de Oro City and currently the General Manager of Pryce Plaza Hotel Cagayan de Oro. His column talks on various issues and concerns affecting the business sector and tourism industry.