Cebu City politics in 2010: Revival of animosity

CEBU, Philippines - The 2010 elections in Cebu City would be an interesting rematch, or a revival of the political animosity between the group of Mayor Tomas Osmeña and that of former mayor Alvin Garcia.

This after Garcia decided to fight Vice Mayor Michael Rama for the mayoralty, with Mayor Tomas Osmeña challenging the congressional bid of Jonathan Guardo in the city’s south district.

The former mayor said he decided to run again for mayor because the elections now are automated, which means that the results are no longer counted manually and therefore lesser cheating than the past electoral exercises when he accused Osmeña of cheating him resulting in his losses in the 2001and 2004 elections.

Garcia formed the Kugi Uswag Sugbo (Kusug), the lone opposition party in Cebu City in 2000 after severing political ties with Osmeña the late 90s.

Rama was still a councilor when Garcia started his political career as the presiding officer of the Cebu City Council being the vice mayor in 1987. Both of them are lawyers and with friendly disposition.

Some political observers described Rama as one of the powerful politicians in the city after serving as councilor and vice mayor for the past 18 years, but they said Garcia is also similarly powerful due to the latter’s term as vice mayor and mayor over the past 12 years.

The 55-year-old Rama, a grandson of the late former Senator Vicente Rama—the acknowledged father of the Cebu City Charter—has been encouraged by Osmeña to run as congressman of the city’s south district, but he declined.

Some of Rama’s friends said the latter wants to carve a niche in the political history of the city because he started his political career as city councilor before he became vice mayor, and if he will succeed, he will be the next city mayor.

“Tan-awa ang pattern, si Mike Rama napili nga national president sa Philippine Councilors League dihang konsehal pa siya, dayon na-elected siya nga national president sa Vice Mayor’s League. Sigurado ko nga kun modaug si Mike pagka mayor, kuhaon na usab niya ang titulo pagka presidente sa City Mayors League of the Philippines,” one of Rama’s staffs said.

Since there is no other powerful figures in the Bando Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan (BOPK) who could fight Guardo in the south district, Osmeña has decided to challenge Guardo’s bid to become congressman “just to protect the South Road Properties,” a 295-hectare reclamation property created out of a P3-billion loan from the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund — now the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

Although Garcia was described as the opposition’s political kingpin in the city, Rama said he was not afraid of him as he warmly welcomed the decision of Garcia to challenge his candidacy for mayor saying that it is the people who will decide in the end.

 “Sa usa ka demokrasya nga nasud ang tanan wala did-i nga makapapili og katungdanan sa kagamhanan basta duna sila’y tumong nga moalagad sa katawhan,” the vice mayor said.

Rama assured that he will not use “gutter language” when he campaigns for his candidacy, saying “Ang politika lumalabay lang. Mas nindot nga human sa eleksyon maayo gihapon ang pagtinagdanay.”

Guardo challenged their opponents in the BOPK line up to a debate on any issues to give the voters an idea of who will be the best candidates among them.

Lahug barangay captain Mary Ann delos Santos, who is aspiring for a congressional seat of the city’s north district, also wanted to face Osmeña and her opponent Rachel “Cutie” del Mar in a debate.

Guardo said former mayor Garcia and Rodolfo Cabrera, Kusug’s mayoralty and vice mayoralty candidates, are also willing to face Rama and education consultant Joy Augustus Young, BOPK’s vice-mayoralty bet, in a debate.

Rama has supported the stand of Osmeña in rejecting the challenge of the opposition leaders for a grand debate. Osmeña said the debate will only make the opposition candidates popular.

Garcia and Cabrera were Kusug’s substitute candidates who replaced its decoy candidates Landelino Bontilao and Jonah John Rodriguez, who earlier filed their certificates of candidacy for mayor and vice mayor, respectively, but later withdrew their COC’s before December 14, the deadline for the political groups to substitute their candidates.

But Kusug party’s Garcia, Cabrera and their other substitute candidates are now facing a threat of disqualification by the Commission on Elections because the party has failed to file its Letter of Authority empowering Garcia to nominate certain candidates. This means that there is a possibility that the candidacy of Garcia and Cabrera may be considered invalid.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said it would mean that the certificate of nomination of all Kusug candidates who filed after December 1 will be declared inoperative or will have no effect and all of them will be considered independent candidates.

This scenario also prompted former senator John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña to put on hold his decision to withdraw his candidacy for mayor of Cebu City because once Garcia and Cabrera would be disqualified in their candidacy, he could offer himself as the standard bearer of the opposition.

Sonny said once the substitute bets of Kusug are removed from the list of candidates he might form an alliance with the opposition to fight the BOPK candidates in next year’s elections.

Meanwhile, Guardo said during the campaign they will explain to the people the failure of the BOPK officials to attend to their basic needs, particularly the poor health services.

“Dugangan pa g’yod nga si Tommy nagplano nga ibaligya niya ang Cebu City Medical Center daghan g’yod ang wala na makagusto niya. Bati pa kaayo ang atong mga karsada dinhi sa dakbayan, mga basura nagkatag lang,” Guardo said.

Guardo lost to reelectionist Antonio Cuenco in the city’s south congressional district in the 2007 elections, but still Guardo continued helping the poor families by giving them with various projects, including health services and free caskets for those who cannot afford to buy.

In the 2007 elections, when Osmeña ran and won as mayor he got 105,932 votes from the south district barangays, while Guardo only garnered 69,562 votes against Cuenco.

The political observers said the statistics could not be made as basis to compare between Osmeña and Guardo because according to them there is a possibility that those who voted for Guardo also supported Osmeña who successfully defended his reelection bid against delos Santos. — /RAE (THE FREEMAN)