The name casting its long shadow

It’s not yet certain who, and how many, would finally run to take over Cebu City in the 2010 elections. As Mayor Tomas Osmeña bows out, the Mayor’s seat is up for grabs, with some under the loose category of “naghupo-hupo”.

One thing certain now is Ms. Georgia Osmeña, Mayor Tommy’s younger sister, has already announced her candidacy for the coveted top post of the Queen City of the South. After so much hedging, Sonny Osmeña has also lately decided to stage his finale at City Hall.

It’s an open secret that while he endorses VM Michael Rama to head the BOPK, he has thrown potshots at Mike for weaknesses or other. In short, it appears that his endorsement of Mike is by force of circumstances, lest the BOPK would crack at the seams. Besides, being the incumbent VM, Mike is the logical partyman to fill up the slot.

Except that she comes from her immediate family of politicians – father Serging was a City Mayor and a Senator, brother Serge a senator, and Mayor Tommy – realtor Georgia Osmeña isn’t one, as yet. She’s still an aspiring political neophyte.

Ms. Georgia’s pedigree makes her a full-bloodied “Osmeñista”, the then rallying point of the Cebu City electors after the infamous 1949 elections, when Serging later burst into the scene like a “Messiah”. In Sonny’s case, he had once reigned at City Hall.

At the moment though, Mayor Tommy has washed his hands off the political plan of his sister Georgia. As reported in this paper: “Tom says he had nothing to do with Georgia’s plan”. Meantime, Tommy has also indicated reconciliation with cousin Sonny.

But then, many naughtily smirk at Tom’s “nothing to do” stance with the oft-cited mantra of “blood being thicker than water”. They’re anticipating that when push comes to shove, or when the crucial moment dictates, a brother can not leave his sister without his lending hand

It has become an ugly episode in Cebu’s political history, that aforesaid infamous 1949 elections when the “terorista” goons and the “bungotons”, with their guns and “dos por dos” savagely shocked the Cebuanos tremendously. And when the next political exercise came, the savior of Cebuano democracy in the person of Serging Osmeña Jr. was welcomed as a hero. Being the namesake of his father Don Sergio, whose name in Philippine government and history has always been as clean as a whistle, his son Serging was the “niño bonito”.

Thus, evolved the campaign blurb of “Bisa’g unsaon, Osmeña gihapon”. And this has held fast over the years, and even Mayor Tommy has benefited from this battlecry, especially when he first ran for office as a virtual tyro. The question now is whether the same Osmeñista formula would benefit newcomer Georgia Osmeña, or Senator Sonny Osmeña in his final try.

Mike Rama who appears the most likely BOPK standard bearer, despite the ballyhooed opposition petition of many BOPK barangay captains, is confident that Tommy and wife Margot would hold on to their commitment to support his bid.

On her part, Georgia Osmeña hasn’t expressed categorically either banking on the support of her brother Tommy, or altogether dispensing from or not welcoming such support. So far, she has openly said that she has been directly seeing not only barrio officials, but also personally meeting the Cebu City electorate, including those of the mountain barangays.

Meantime, whoever be the final candidates in Cebu City mayoral race – whether one-on-one, or a three-cornered fight, or what – it’s interesting to find out if “Bisa’g unsaon, Osmeña gihapon” would work wonders for Georgia, or for Sonny as he now vows a repeat.

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