For almost a week now, the League of Municipalities (LMP) Bohol Chapter was the topic of discussion in the radio commentaries, news reports and in coffee shops. For almost a year now LMP Bohol Chapter was without its officers. No wonder nothing has been heard of it until lately when the members noticed that they did not have any representation in the affairs of the LMP in the national and regional levels. The LMP Knowing the calibre of some of the members of the Chapter, it is very difficult to understand, much less accept that this could happen unless all the members have become numb to whether it was important that the chapter still exists or not.

I recall that the election of officers of the LMP Bohol Chapter last year was tumultuous after both candidates for President, Mayor Rey Niño Boniel of Bien Unido and Mayor Roygie Jumamoy of Inabanga, got equal votes. The issue could have been settled with the accepted mode of settling such issue even in regular elections of elective government officials. A tie vote could be resolved by resorting to a toss coin to determine the winner. Or there is now the accepted term sharing where both candidates split the term into half so that both of them could serve the organization until the expiration of the term of office.

But in the case of the LMP Bohol they had to go to court to get a settlement which is, knowing how the wheels of justice in our Philippine Court grind, could take a lifetime. And true to this, no President of the LMP Bohol Chapter has taken an oath until now since no winner was declared yet. Why the other officers who were elected and who were proclaimed as winners did not take their oath to avoid a hiatus in leadership is something people cannot understand. In the regular elections for elective government officials, proclaimed winners take their oath notwithstanding unresolved issues for the other elective positions. So why didn't the other officials not take their oath after their proclamation? Why allow the LMP Bohol Chapter to exist without the other officials who have managed the affairs of the Chapter?

In any organization, the next in rank – the Executive Vice President in the case of the LMP Bohol Chapter, takes over the leadership in the absence of a duly elected highest official. But for the LMP Bohol Chapter, it took them one year before deciding to do so, and taking their oath during a gathering that was not called for the purpose so that not all members were aware of it. Not only was it too late but the occasion invited speculations that the decisions was railroaded to suit political ends. How can the officials be so insensitive to the needs of the Chapter knowing that if they did not take their oath, it was as if the Chapter did not exist at all because there was nobody who would manage and steer the Chapter in accordance with their mandate? So many legal questions were raised on the conduct of the elections last year because it was not the nits President who called for it but the Executive Vice President. My question is why did they proceed with the elections without resolving the issue? If it was a violation of the League's Constitution and By-Laws, why was DILG there? And why was the representative of the League's National Secretariat there in the first place?

Another question. What does the Constitution and By-Laws say about an elected President of the Chapter who is no longer a sitting Mayor? (Atty. Roberto Cajes of Trinidad was no longer a sitting Mayor after he run for a different office and lost). Granting it was a big issue, DILG and the National Secretariat of the League should have resolved it before authorizing the elections. Unless our leaders put aside political interest when the interest of the people and the organization is at stake, we will never see a better Bohol. Let's hope that what is happening to the LMP Bohol Chapter is not a reflection of the quality of leadership that we have among our political leaders in Bohol. Or God forbid, our life as a province and as a people is in for a deep shit.