Mayor Tom is not yet irrelevant, but…
For our special presentation on our talkshow Straight from the Sky, we continue with our travelogue from our Mediterranean Cruise and this time we get to visit three places in Greece: Katakolon, where Olympia is located, the site of the first Olympic Games; the island of Mykonos, a famous Greek tourist destination; and the island of Santorini, another famous Greek tourist destination, where you can see what's left of the crater when a volcano erupted in ancient times. Some archaeologists say Santorini was the site of the legendary city of Atlantis that sunk into the sea as written by Greek Philosopher Plato in 360 BC.
Of the three Greek destinations, Santorini had the best view, but I like Mykonos best of all. But for archaeology buffs, Olympia is the place to visit. So watch our travelogue of these destinations on SkyCable's channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV's channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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It was a huge political event that happened last Friday at the Plaza Independencia, which was attended by at least 50,000 people as written by all the three local dailies. It is rare that these three newspapers agree on the number of people that attend a major political event. So it must be true that there were 50,000 who attended that rally.
Friday was the day that the national ruling political party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) can now officially claim that the Province of Cebu and its metropolitan cities is PDP-Laban country because the majority of local political parties in Cebu, notably the One Cebu Party and Alayon took their oath of office before House Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez.
It was in this event that Alvarez endorsed Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Margaux "Mocha" Uson and Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque to run for senator. He also named, Rep. Karlo Nogales (Davao City), Rep. Geraldine Roman (Bataan), Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Negros Occidental), and former Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino as potential senatorial candidates under the PDP-Laban political banner for the 2019 mid-term elections.
But there was no mention by Alvarez endorsing Deputy Speaker Rep. Gwen F. Garcia in that event, although many Cebuanos want her back in the Cebu Provincial Capitol. She is the head of the One Cebu Party that joined the PDP-Laban. But certainly, almost all major political parties in the Province of Cebu, like the One Cebu Party and Alayon, except for the Bakud Party of Ramonito Durano (although they have expressed their full support to Pres. Rodrigo Duterte), they have become members of the ruling PDP-Laban Party overnight.
In August 2016, PDP-Laban received a manifesto of support from 65 out of the 80 barangay captains in Cebu City headed by Philip Zafra when they took the oath of office of some 300 new members of PDP-Laban held at the Sacred Heart Center. This was when Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing joined PDP-Laban.
Also taking their oaths of office last Friday were the members of Team Rama (around 200 in number) led by Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and the Team Rama councilors. Their political leader, former Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, was left out because he was tagged by no less than Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte as a drug protector, an image that he has to shed in order to keep alive his political aura.
As for Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Alvarez remarked, "Just ignore him, he is irrelevant. I don't know where Cebu City Mayor Osmeña stands. He has no concerns about the party because he is not a PDP-Laban member." The BO-PK was allied with the Liberal Party in the last two elections. With the LP dwindling in number, it just makes me wonder how the BO-PK can survive this political juggernaut.
I don't think Mayor Osmeña has become irrelevant, but he is certainly working feverishly to become irrelevant with his recent policies like his inability to fix many of our potholed roads, or his lack of transparency on that P3-billion loan, or his changing the Sinulog parade route to SRP.
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