CDO in the Future? Not with the Same Old Faces

Picture this: Cagayan de Oro with a skyline that could make Makati jealous. Bullet trains zipping from Bulua to Bugo. Clean streets, smart traffic systems, and enough jobs so our youth don’t have to fly to Manila, Cebu, or abroad just to earn a decent living.

Now picture this: the same trapo politicians smiling in tarpaulins every three years, promising the moon but delivering a monoblock chair for the barangay hall.

See the problem?

For decades, we’ve been stuck in a cycle — voting for the same surnames, the same recycled promises, the same barkada politics. These “leaders” don’t think about the next generation. They think about the next election. They don’t plan for the city’s future. They plan for their next photo-op.

And yet, every campaign season, they roll out the same tired lines: “Mula’t sapul, para sa katawhan!” Meanwhile, our roads flood, our traffic worsens, and our young people leave. What’s their solution? Another ribbon-cutting. Another “program” with their face bigger than the project.

Cagayan de Oro deserves leaders who aren’t just born into power. We need visionaries — people who see beyond the politics of pabay-an lang basta amigo, and who actually do the work. Leaders who won’t wait for an international donor or a political favor before they fix basic problems. Leaders who think like city-builders, not dynasty keepers.

If we keep electing the same old faces, we shouldn’t be surprised if our “future city” is still just a meme on Facebook.

The truth is simple: modern CDO is possible — but not with leaders stuck in the 1980s mindset. Our progress depends on voting for people who don’t see City Hall as a family inheritance.

If we want change, we have to stop being loyal to names and start being loyal to results.

Because the CDO of tomorrow won’t be built by people clinging to yesterday.