The best joke on cityhood comes courtesy of the Kalinga-Apayao Religious Sector Association, an organization of the clergy of the twin provinces that is more activist than secular. And a green joke it is.
"Baka met no agbalin nga city ti Tabuk ket ngumina ti babae," the priests reportedly said in jest.
Town officials who convened the meeting merely laughed with their audience but apparently made no reply.
Colleagues at the academe have an answer in reply to the KARSA's jest patented after Vice-Mayor Rainier Sarol's standard answer to allegations that prices of goods will increase once Tabuk becomes a city based on elementary principles of supply and demand. My colleagues claim that the fees of hookers will decrease in response to the stiff competition to be brought in by more "doves of low flight" who will come over to establish their trade.
Anyway, it was KARSA chairman and Anglican bishop Rev. Renato Abibico who said that becoming a city "should be a natural process." I suppose the good bishop's comment is self-explanatory. I happen to agree very much with it, too.
As pointed out by several naysayers and undecided, a town becomes a city because it had reached a high level of development and civilization, both of which are lacking in the case of Tabuk. They also contend that the logic of local officials that Tabuk must become a city first so there will be development later, betrays the real score: that the quest for cityhood is a quest for a bigger internal revenue allotment -- no more, no less.
I would like to add that in case their allegation is correct, then the same reflects a quality of leadership that requires huge sums at the official's disposal so he could erect a waiting shed.
Saturday's plebiscite would be a watershed moment in Tabuk's history and would have a lasting impact not only for our town but also for the entire province and, to some extent, the entire region. We would have two cities in Cordi. Cebu has at least four and it's only a province, but never mind.
What I find funny is that the opposition to the citification drive find no better argument other than the prices of goods increasing.
For one, there's the social, moral and environmental costs of a town becoming a city. Living in a city means more problems along those areas. The municipal government is somewhat incapable of dealing with the problems the way things are. How does it expect to deal with them after the imagined ecnomic boom shall have worsened them? Sure, the local government will have thrice more than its present resources, but I'm willing to bet the problems will also multiply by more than three-fold.
And what if the economic take-off our officials had been mouthing to sell cityhood to the public does not materialize? Then the joke is on us.
Know what? That's not the worst joke. The chances that there would be no economic take-off for Tabuk are really enormous. But that's stuff I don't want to dwell upon for now. For now, I'd like to take the optimist position. Yes, readers, I am voting "yes" to Tabuk City and so would majority of Tabukenos.** Bani Asbucan
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