After the Mayor’s State of the City Address, how shall we Address him Next?

by Marciano Paroy Jr.

Going over the pronouncements of Mayor Lammawin during his State of the City Address at the Pastoral Center, I clap my hands and give Mayor Lammawin the two-tumbsup sign.
We do give credit where it is due. Not only because it is the fair thing to do – but more so because it would somehow express how impressed we are with his commitment to attain tangible change within the time parameter he has avowed to attain such. Also, placing his leadership achievement under the spotlight would inspire those who have set their eyes to scale the same ladder he has successfully ascended.

Normally, we would like to assume that his successor would stay within safe grounds and be guided with what is already in place by the time he or she takes over the reigns. Or take the more drastic move and put his or her own planning-execution wheels into motion – probably taking a different direction, or at least prioritizing a different area.

There is nothing bad with such prospects, especially so if the common good is being served, which is our yardstick in assessing the efficiency and competence of those who occupy executive posts in governance.

This early, I am talking about 2010 and what might happen after the elections next year because of the Mayor’s SOCA. He has summarized what has been attained by the city government under his watch – and so naturally, we look forward and ask the crucial question: what happens after he steps down from the apex of Tabuk politics and move on to whatever he might be contemplating at present?

We do need to ask that question. As a genuine Tabukeño, I – like everyone else in the community – have a stake in the future of this place. The natural course of thoughts for us would be to say that we like the course of things as they are now – but we have to realize that there would really be a different occupant at the Mayor’s chair next year, and so asking the question “What happens next?” is a cause of concern for all of us.

*****
Thumbing through our local history, Mayor Lammawin’s rise in Tabuk politics is almost like “a given” – one of those phenomena we refer to as “it’s meant to be.” Having shown his charisma, first as a councilor, then winning more and more believers and supporters when he sat as Vice Mayor – he has, so to speak, charted a political career that can only be described as “nowhere to go but up.”

By the time he was sitting at the Mayor’s Office, he has already a well-entrenched place in the hearts of Tabukeños. Though his original companions at the Council have moved on to other areas, and though the composition of that same council changed a number of times by the time he was wielding executory powers, he has held on – a trooper, if we are to liken him to a performer.

Back to the question – “what happens next?” Or shall we reword it more blatantly?
“Who shall sit next?”