Conscience, contrast, and Cebu

In less than a week, Filipinos will once again head to the voting centers to cast their ballots in the midterm local and national elections --three years after the last one.

- Atty, Ian Vincent Manticajon

For me, however, three years feels like too short an interval to be trooping to the polls again. But that is what the Constitution provides in Article X, Section 8, which sets the term of office of elective local officials, except barangay officials, at three years.

Though my interest mainly lies in Cebu City, where I live and work, I've been closely following the developments in Cebu Province, particularly the preventive suspension of Governor Gwen Garcia by the Office of the Ombudsman.

The governor was in her trademark fighting and defiant form. But if I were her, I would heed the advice of her brother, Rep. Pablo John Garcia: seek proper legal remedies while respecting the preventive suspension order and focus on campaigning in the final stretch. There are talks on the ground that reelection is not exactly in the bag for the governor; that her opponent, Pam Baricuatro, might just pull off an upset.