EDITORIAL - A political burden

Has the opposition in the Cebu City Council abandoned the leader of its political group? This question surfaced following a declaration from one of its members that the local opposition party can now be called Barug PDP-Laban, not Barug Team Rama.

The change of the name came after some allies of former mayor Michael Rama took their oath with President Rodrigo Duterte's PDP-Laban. Rama, who was accused by the president of being involved in illegal drugs, was not invited to the event.

Rama was not informed about this development, admitted opposition Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, who told The FREEMAN that "Now that we took our oath as PDP, please refer to us in your write-ups as Barug PDP-Laban. Mas maayo na PDP kay it's PDP that is the registered party while Team Rama is not."

As expected, Rama was not happy about the move, saying there should have been a prior agreement before the decision to change the name of the party was made. The former mayor said he will call for a meeting about the matter, seemingly wondering why he was being left out.        

The move is clearly part of the opposition's preparations for the 2019 elections. For Garcia and company, shifting allegiance to PDP-Laban is the only way to beat Mayor Tomas Osmeña and his Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan allies.

However, such move may only create division among the opposition. The fact that Rama was not informed about the decision to change the party's name can only spell disunity among the opposition and its allies.

Many see the move of some opposition members in forging ties with the administration PDP-Laban could be the end of their alliance with the former mayor. It seems that for them, to continue adopting the name Team Rama would be a disaster due to the fact that Rama, after being included on the list of narco-politicians, has already become a political burden.

It remains to be seen whether such move would give Garcia and company the upper hand in the 2019 elections. But one thing is sure: a divided opposition will only give Osmeña and the BO-PK the advantage.