Tom okay with Cuenco son

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña was blunt in saying that he will accept the son of south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco into the Bando Osmeña- Pundok Kauswagan as long as Ronald Cuenco will join the group as himself and not his father’s representative.

“He should come with his own identity and not as a representative of Tony,” Osmeña said in his regular press conference yesterday.

Cuenco earlier said that Ronald, a former Cebu City councilor, will return from the United States and might be the one to replace him once he bows out of politics in 2010.

But Osmeña contended that when he entered local politics, he never ran in the shadows of his brother Serge and estranged cousin, John “Sonny” Osmeña, both former Senators.

Meanwhile, Osmeña also questioned Cuenco’s “turnaround” when the latter recently expressed concern over the barangay captains in the south district. 

“Now he cares about the barangays captains. Why the sudden turnaround? Where was he when they needed him?” Osmeña said. The mayor said to have been angered by Cuenco’s absence at the height of the campaign in last year’s barangay elections.

After that, the two never talked personally and Cuenco was no longer invited in any gathering of the BO-PK.

But Osmeña clarified that despite the raging word war between him and the congressman, he will not stop the barangays in the south district from getting projects from Cuenco, especially if the projects would indeed benefit the people.

The conflict between the two aggravated when Cuenco recently announced his plan to file a separate bill in Congress to split barangay Guadalupe into two to give attention some parts of the barangay that have allegedly been left unattended by the barangay’s officials. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO