BOPK wins landslide in Cebu City

CEBU, Philippines - Wearing their trademark blue shirt, bets of Bando Osmeña – Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) yesterday reaffirmed their domination in the city’s political landscape after they were proclaimed as winners in this year’s polls.

Cebu City’s new mayor, vice mayor, councilors and representatives all come from BOPK. Election officer Edwin Cadungog of the city’s south district said 133,642 of the 516,232 voters in Cebu City did not cast their votes last Monday.

Relatives and close to 300 supporters of the winning candidates trooped to City Hall shortly before midday to witness the proclamation, barely two days after the country’s first ever automated elections.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña, whose term of office will end on June 30, was proclaimed congressman for the city’s south district. He won with 125,575 votes over his rival Jonathan Guardo of Kugi Uswag Sugbu (Kusug) who got 67,652 votes.

Osmeña is the son of the late Senator Sergio Osmeña Jr. and Lourdes dela Rama Osmeña, the grandson of former Philippine President Sergio Osmeña Sr. and the younger sibling of Senator Sergio Osmeña III.

BOPK’s Rachel “Cutie” Del Mar also won in the north district with 98,501 against Lahug Barangay Captain Mary Ann delos Santos of Kusug who got 58,492 votes.

Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Michael Rama was proclaimed the new mayor of Cebu City with 210,520 votes against the 120,327 votes of close rival and former mayor Alvin Garcia of Kusug.

Education consultant Joy Augustus Young will be the new presiding officer of the City Council after he won the vice mayoralty post with 226,736 over Kusug’s Rodolfo Cabrera who got 59,990 votes.

The newly-elected councilors for the city’s north district are Edgardo Labella, 105,338 votes; Augustus Pe Jr., 97,546 vote; Alvin Arcilla, 91,096 votes; Sisinio Andales, 85,880 votes; Lea Japson, 84,615 votes; Alvin Dizon, 82,274 votes; Noel Wenceslao, 79,247 votes; and Nida Cabrera, 77,018 votes.

The city’s south district voted for Rodrigo Abellanosa, 137,676 votes; Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, 136,765 votes; Edu Rama, 121,340 votes; Joey Daluz III, 114,603 votes; Raul Alcoseba, 113,370 votes; Ronald Cuenco, 102,743 votes; Richard “Ritchie” Osmeña, 97,274 votes; and Roberto Cabarrubias, 95,668 votes.

Of the 560 overall clustered precincts in Cebu City, only 557 were canvassed by the Board of Canvassers because the memory cards of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines from three polling precincts were reportedly “missing.”

There were 284 PCOS machines positioned in various barangays in Cebu City that failed to transmit data to the Board of Canvassers, which prompted members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) to hand carry the memory cards to the Board of Canvassers to enable the stored data to be uploaded into the laptop computers of the BOC.

At 4 am yesterday, BOC canvassed 555 election returns from various precincts, but those who have garnered the highest votes could not be proclaimed just yet because the laptop issued to BOC was programmed in such a way that it will only print the canvass report if the total number of precincts canvassed would reach 100 percent.

Because the three missing memory cards only contained more than 2,000, which would not have a drastic effect on the figures already obtained by the leading candidates, the Commission on Election en banc allowed the BOC to proclaim the candidates with the highest votes.

Reacting to the claim of Kusug candidates that they were again cheated in this year’s polls, Osmeña said BOPK would not hesitate to face Kusug again in another round of elections.

“No problem. They are all recycled losers,” Osmeña said.

Addressing the media after the proclamation, Rama said he would allow Osmeña to be involved in the management of the South Road Properties after the latter expressed his willingness to do so.

“I have no problem in terms of Tommy helping and assisting SRP on where it should be. As I’ve said all the time, Tommy had a masteral and doctorate of the SRP. Who among here in the city of Cebu is better than Tommy?” Rama said.— Rene U. Borromeo and Jessica Ann R. Pareja/JMO (FREEMAN NEWS)