Osmeña leaves for US

CEBU CITY — Mayor Tomas Osmeña left for the United States the other day to undergo medical check-up and to rest.

Osmeña, accompanied by his wife, Margot, and son Miguel, left Cebu at about 5 a.m. aboard Cebu Pacific for Manila where they took the 8 a.m. flight to New York.

The mayor’s elder sister, Maria Victoria "Minnie" Osmeña, waited for them in Manila and joined them on their trip to the US.

Wearing a striped blue-and-white, long-sleeved polo and black pants, Osmeña stepped down from his Cherokee alone, without the assistance of his bodyguards.

The mayor also walked without a cane and was not wearing his eyeglasses with a patch.

"I’m going on a medical check-up first in New York. There, they will review all my documents and records, including the X-rays," he told The Freeman at the airport.

His doctor, cardiologist Manuel Lim, later said the mayor is well enough to take the 22-hour trip to the US.

Osmeña said he does not know yet what he will be doing in the US aside from seeking medical treatment.

"I will decide when I get there," he said. He added though that he will stay in the US for a month, at the most, not six months as earlier announced.

He said he did not give any specific instructions to acting mayor Michael Rama and councilors belonging to his party, the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan, on how to run the city.

"No instructions whatsoever," he said. "The city is functioning well. I don’t need to give them last-minute instructions."

While Osmeña is on leave, a management team, led by Vice Mayor Rama, will run the day-to-day affairs at City Hall.

Osmeña was rushed to the hospital last March 9 after collapsing at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral where he stood as sponsor at a wedding. His blood pressure at that time rose to 240 over 120.

He was diagnosed to have suffered from a hypertensive crisis. He was confined at the Chong Hua Hospital for about 20 days. — Freeman News Service