When is Mike and Edgar going to talk?
The Cebu City politics nowadays seem to depend only on three men and Malacañang. These three musketeers, the Cebuano's version of Athos, Porthos and Aramis, are, of course, incumbent Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena, former City Mayor Michael L. Rama, and incumbent Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella. Understandably, the great disruptor of the three men's conflicting ambitions is President Rody R. Duterte, who can raise the hand of either Mike or Edgar and pour billions of campaign money to the city come elections in 2019. And that would be goodbye to Tom.
The question is: why should Malacañang be interested in Cebu politics, when the president has the whole nation to worry about? My retort is both succinct and argumentative; Why not? The reasons are many. First, President Digong does not want an LP in the city and province of his late father. Thus, his campaign focus is to make sure, non-LPs should lead Cebu after 2019. And so, being an astute, albeit unorthodox politician, he does not want Mike and Edgar to split the anti-Osmeña votes. He wants a solid PDP-Laban slate in Cebu City.
And so if President Duterte proceeds with what I project, he would call Mike and Edgar to Davao, some weekends after the SONA. There, he would convince Mike or Edgar to take over DOLE from Bebot Bello, who is going to be either Ombudsman or run for senator, or even focus on the peace-talks with a special post waiting as ambassador extraordinary plenipotentiary. Whoever between the two won't get a national post, would run solo against the Osmeñas.
There is no way that we can envision of a tri-cornered fight for city mayor among Tomas, Mike and Edgar. If that comes about, Tommy will win hands down and laugh his way back to the City Hall. PDP-Laban will be wiped out in Cebu and the President would not want that for the rest of his term till 2022. And so, the earlier Mike and Edgar talks, the better for their party. Manong Digong loves Cebu. He wants his men to run it.
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