The Wolf

Days after Tropical Storm “Sendong” struck, public outrage spread in the city like a wildfire, seeking accountability for the 3,000 dead and missing. Ironically, the public indignation was roused by no less than the city mayor himself, Vicente Y. Emano. By consigning scores of unidentified dead bodies to the city landfill, the people of Cagayan de Oro were reminded that only an election ago, scores of compact flash cards from automated election machines were seen dumped by a city hall truck in the same landfill. In that election, Emano won by a measly margin of 2,000 votes. Months later, the truck driver was six feet below the ground.

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Sendong was a blessing in disguise for Cagayan de Oro. In power for almost 14 years now, Emano has entrenched a regime that does not tolerate dissent. But a people rising from a disaster have awakened and have started asking questions. Were it not for Sendong, the city would still be on its way for another nine years, and more, of Emano.

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The social media revolution against Emano has so far produced almost 30,000 signatures for an electoral recall drive that needs only 45,000 signatures. It is spearheaded by people most of whom have no association with or interest in politics, but exasperated enough with the one-family rule that has kept Cagayan de Oro in a decrepit state. Under the Emanos, the city is a chaotic mess of traffic snarls and vendors on roads and sidewalks. Thus, it has not been difficult to collect the recall signatures. Even businesses known to be sympathetic to the mayor are now faced with the threat of boycott. When a recall drive volunteer who left signature forms at a restaurant in the city’s busy Limketkai Mall was stopped by management, an Internet posting of the incident was met with boycott calls that instantly became viral. Organizers of the drive expect the city’s business leaders who fear Emano’s “vindictiveness” to soon join the opposition bandwagon.

A city struck by a deadly, rampaging rage of a river is showing the country that in the 21st century, conventional media is not necessarily the norm to effect democratic change. Ousting a local dictator is possible. And it is not Manila showing the way. It is Manila that is watching.

- Antonio J. Montalvan, II, Cagayan de Oro spring

The author is a local historian and anthropologist. He is also among those who lost friends and relatives when Typhoon Washi/Sendong’s waters rushed through Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.

Over the past few weeks Nono (as how Dr. Montalvan is known to Kagay-anons) has been at the forefront of a movement which calls for accountability and transparency in the handling of the worst natural disaster to have hit the city.

And while he and other Kagay-anons go about extending relief at the same time calling for the city to take responsibility for what happened, they are threatened with spies and words from the local government which seems to be at a loss on what to do in the aftermath of the flood.

I pray that Nono and my fellow Kagay-anons who are now standing up for their democratic rights and demanding what they deserve from what is supposed to be their government, would not be ignored and silenced while the country indulges itself on the “juicy” issues in the Capital.