Tomas Osmeña wins Cebu City’s battle royale!

As of the last counting of the Cebu City elections, Mayor Tomas Osmeña and his political party, the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK), were headed for a stunning victory which many are calling the "Otso-Otso" victory for there are eight councilors in the North District and another eight for the South District of Cebu City. Although we submit that the official counting isn’t finished, we got this report from Super Bobby Nalzaro’s radio news commentary on radio station dySS. When everything is final and official, we’ll tell you.

Now it can be told that former Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia wasn’t able to reclaim his old seat, which he lost in the 2001 elections in what was dubbed as a "battle royale" between the two political rivals. Garcia’s Kusug political party was totally trounced by the BO-PK in the South District, while in the North the only slot contested by the Kusug party was the eighth slot… but that hope is getting dimmer.

For congressman in the North District, Rep. Raul del Mar had a very comfortable lead over his rival, councilor Danilo Fernan, while the South District remained hotly contested between incumbent Rep. Antonio Cuenco and challenger Aristotle Batuhan. But in the last count, Tony Cuenco was leading by 3,000 votes… not comfortable but enough to gain an advantage.

What could have gone wrong for the Garcia camp? Perhaps, the Cebuanos got sick and tired of the old issues, which Garcia brought up… the very same issues they used in the previous elections. A new issue which Alvin Garcia brought up was his claim that the South Reclamation Project (SRP) was his project… something that Cebuanos thought was way out of line simply because he didn’t make this claim in the 2001 elections. Perhaps, the biggest mistake or miscalculation done by Alvin Garcia was his siding with the opposition’s actor Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) when he knew too well that Cebuano voters would reject FPJ. In the end, the Cebuanos rejected Garcia together with FPJ.

Here’s an interesting note printed on Page 2 of the Cebu Daily News as reported by Doris Bongcac last Wednesday: former mayor Alvin Garcia even lost in his own precinct! In Precinct 0431-A where Alvin and his family voted, of the total 227 votes cast, Garcia garnered only 74 while Tomas Osmeña got 157. Call it unbelievable, but true. The CDN report also came up with the results for Precinct 413-A where Mayor Tomas Osmeña voted: of the total 192 votes, Osmeña garnered 130 while Garcia got only 42.

Meanwhile in the province of Cebu, Gwen Garcia had a slight lead over Celestino Martinez Jr. while Vice Gov. John-John Osmeña was tailing behind… although nothing is official at this point. What is clear in the elections is that the Cebuanos re-elected an Osmeña in Cebu City, but rejected a Garcia. However, in Cebu province, it was Osmeña who was rejected, while Gwen Garcia’s chance of winning the gubernatorial race is getting brighter.

Allow me to say that the Cebuano voter has shown his political maturity. Perhaps it is due to the mass media where all the issues were clearly presented to the public or the electorate. The elections show that the scandals affecting Vice Gov. John-John had taken root, added the fact that his father, Sen. John "Sonny" Osmeña, at the last minute shifted alliance to the Martinez camp, which meant doom for the candidacy of John-John. Of course, people in Cebu cannot believe that Sen. Osmeña would reject the bid of his only son… but in the end, they’re now saying that Sonny Osmeña’s poor showing in the senatorial race may just be his karma for rejecting his son.

That Cebuanos went all out for GMA is something we expected. Yes, if and when GMA wins this political race, she can thank the Cebuanos for going to the polls in droves putting her as their choice for president. FPJ can shout all he wants that he was cheated in the elections, but again, like his campaign programs to eradicate poverty, all that is nothing but a motherhood statement. That FPJ had a victory party in Makati only proves that this was part of their strategy to sow confusion. How can they have a victory party when less than ten percent of the votes were counted?

Well, you can say the same thing with FPJ’s cry that he was cheated… all this is just to condition the people to further destabilize our nation… in short they’re nothing but sore losers! If as advertised FPJ is not a politician as he claims to be, then by all means, he should be prepared to lose if the count shows that he lost. After all, we’d salute him if he won. But at this time, no one should claim any victory until the final count is finished. Incidentally, it’s about time that the Comelec came up with a ruling which should disallow any post-election rallies since they would only sow confusion while the counting isn’t over.

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While the entire elections in Cebu province were peaceful, unexpectedly, Cebu experienced its only post-election violence when no less than SP04 Arsenio Escarda, the chief of police of the town of Madridejos on Bantayan Island, was shot and killed by M/Sgt. Mario Benito. Madridejos was one of the towns placed under Comelec control because of the political feud between Mayor Letty Mancio and Mayor Zenaida Salazar but sources are saying that this killing may have been caused by personal grudge rather than some political overtones. We can’t really tell for sure until the investigation is over.

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Airlines come and go. We once saw Air Manila, Aerolift, Filipinas Orient Airways or Grand Air take flight to compete with PAL, but all of them faltered. But there’s a small airline which just celebrated its eighth anniversary at the Marriott Hotel last Tuesday. I’m referring to Asian Spirit, which flies to 21 destinations with its fleet of 12 turbo prop aircraft. We congratulate the people behind Asian Spirit because I know that they’re one of the reasons why Boracay is a famous destination today. Yes, if there’s an airline which has helped our domestic tourism, it’s Asian Spirit. More power and success to you!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.