Mayor Lim should have given way to Danny Lacuna

One day before the elections, May 13, I chanced upon Mayor Fred Lim at the National Bookstore branch in the Mall of Asia.

Cool! Dirty Harry with his wife queuing, waiting for their turn at the check out counter.

This man is admirable, and truly deserves another term as City Mayor of Manila.

But think again. Danny Lacuna, who has been vice-mayor for numerous terms, wasn't given the chance to be the mayor, despite of his 40 long years of dedicated service to the Manilenyos.

So did Manilenyos make the wrong decision of reinstalling Lim as mayor? Not really. Both would have served their constituents well, but the downside of electing Lim as mayor this year is...

... Lim won't be able to finish his remaining 3 years as senator of the republic, and thus, we again have a senate with just 23 members, which had happened before, when PGMA and Noli were each elected as VP in 1998 and 2004, respectively. And there have been occasions when members of the senate need to debate or vote on important matters, and by now we should realize that the numbers really count.

A better scenario would have been Lim staying on as senator, and Lacuna assuming the mayoralty post in Manila. We could have had a senate with a complete lineup, and at the same time, still tap the services of Lacuna.

Well, anyway, what the legislators should do now is to fix the problem of letting senators assume other posts and not finishing their terms.

A reverse scenario was that of Lito Lapid. He ran for the mayoralty post in Makati, saying that he does not really fit into the job of a legislator. By admitting that, Lapid should have resigned from the senate to run for mayor. Interestingly, he lost, and he still would enjoy the next 3 years sitting comfortably in the session hall of the senate.