Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Wenceslao: Mandaue’s sons By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
TALES, even the fictional, need to stand the test of believability. Novels like Harry Potter, for example, succeeded because of logic in the fictional plot.
Since fiction mimics real life, real life is thus the gold standard. So where does the Gavino Cabahug Jr.-Paulus Mariae Cañete story stand? (And why the name “Mariae”? Obviously another story.)
I am, as is the public, for the truth, which is often elusive. There is only one truth; the others are either half-truths or lies. I therefore don’t buy the theory about three truths: the accuser’s truth, the accused’s truth and the truth. Truth, however, is difficult to come by in this period of media spins and in a politicized setup like the one in Mandaue City.
Anyway, assessing the claims and counter-claims in the Cabahug-Cañete tug-of-war, I mined two possibilities: either Cañete, et al, were bungling planners or Cabahug was not forthright. Both ways, the quest for truth is not served.
So either we will have to wait for more information to come out or be resigned to the possibility it won’t pan out.
My questions are basic.
l If the intention was to kill Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, why would Cañete’s group hire Cabahug? I don’t know the man but Cabahug is supposedly “only” an electronics technician. Or is there something not listed in his resume, like being a hired killer? But even that begs another question.
Why didn’t he at least own a gun?
l I don’t have any problem with an electronics technician stealing documents or even burning a school, the expertise needed there is not much. But one good question: What kind of documents did Cañete order Cabahug to steal?
If Cabahug can tell us that, then at least we will know what Cañete “wants to hide” in the Mandaue City College probe.
l Why would Cabahug go to a television instead of a police station to seek help and divulge Cañete’s plan? Didn’t earlier reports say he was a police asset? And doesn’t the scene look familiar, like when witnesses go first to Manila TV stations to “expose” the alleged shenanigans of the Arroyo administration, but with their identities hidden?
There are as yet no answers to those questions, of course. In the meantime, I pity the students caught in the crossfire in the battle for control of the college. The remedy is obvious, however, and that is to transfer to another school. I understand the purpose of the creation of the college was noble. Sadly, the protagonists in this conflict aren’t.
And was politics behind the Cañete-Cabahug incident? Maybe. Or maybe not, initially. But with the way this is being discussed by Mandaue politicians now, politics is apparent. Instead of getting into the bottom of the case, both the camps of Cortes and Vice Mayor Pontico Fortuna are muddling it with the verbal exchange that erupted.
While the alleged assassination attempt on the mayor may sound preposterous to some, politicians in Mandaue seem bent on intensifying their conflict, which could in turn make political killings a reality in the area. But then, Mandauehanons have always been peace-loving and, because Cortes and Fortuna are Mandaue’s sons, there is hope.
