A weird Os-Ram prospect
I perceive a weird calm before the proverbial political storm here in Cebu City. There has been a dearth of press releases coming from the two groups expected to do battle in the 2019 local elections. Each side has apparently withheld sniping at each other. Let us try to fathom this unusual situation.
The news headlines last month featured the announcement coming from the political opposition that former mayor Michael L. Rama, was making a sacrifice. He accordingly explained the word sacrifice to mean that in order to strengthen the unity of Barug Team Rama and the PDP-Laban, he was running as the vice mayoralty candidate with Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, as candidate for mayor. Mediamen noted that the forum was elaborate. As a political assemblage, it was “fiesta-like” as we understand the term “fiesta.” All the leading figures aside from Rama and Labella were there.
In that meeting, they agreed on a short list of candidates running under the announced Labella-Rama tandem. Among the team’s city council north district aspirants are Councilors Raymond Garcia, Joel Garganera and Pastor Alcover Jr., who got elected to office under Barug Team Rama. They claimed that the desertions of Councilors Mary Ann De Los Santos (after the 2013 polls) and Jerry Guardo (more recently) tarnished more the image of the alleged deserters than affect the group adversely. I was asked not as yet to reveal the names of rest of the slate although I was told, in a manner that showed confidence, that the south district candidates are as formidable as their northern counterparts.
More importantly, they reportedly signed a paper that looked like a manifesto. My informant told me that the said manifesto contained a working formula, a modus vivendi of sort, to serve as guidelines in the conduct of their campaign. But, after the newspapers screamed the Labella-Rama tandem, a seeming news black out followed.
In about the same period of time, the political group that controls the city administration found a way to dodge the vitriolic attacks of President Rodrigo Duterte on His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña. We witnessed how the president, who, at times out-Nero’s Nero, in his foul language, pilloried our mayor. To parry the impact of the presidential blows, the BOPK initially tinkered with the idea that Councilor Margarita Osmeña would probably run for mayor. The apparent rationale was that the lady Osmena could handily beat Labella. The group somehow succeeded to highlight among Cebuanos a Margot leadership than the Duterte verbal assault. That BOPK move though appeared to be just a political litmus paper and when the voters’ reaction did not seem to meet the group’s expectation, it was, as it had to be, recalled. So, on with the re-election bid of Mayor Tomas Osmena. Then, a news black out also ensued when Mayor Osmeña stopped his regular press briefing.
With only few days left leading to the filing of the Certificates of Candidacies, there is this perceptible absence of political news. I label this phenomenon as weird because we would otherwise already been deluged with more or less definitive lines of candidates. However, the news black outs from both camps are dictated by shifts of sights, if not change of tactics, of politicians. The PDP-Laban leadership, judging from the way it attempts to marshal its forces, would want to break out from the manifesto it signed with Barug Team Rama. It is believed as planning to replace Rama as vice mayor with someone else. I call it back stabbing, a treachery.
On the other hand, there is rumor among BOPK cadres that Mayor Osmeña would want, Franklin Ong, the newly chosen head of The Association of Barangay Councils to be his running mate primarily because he is moneyed. But when his die-hard supporters brought up Ong’s status as political neophyte, the mayor reportedly indicated signs of hesitation such that the name of Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos surfaced. If Osmeña knew about the PDP-Laban treachery, it may not be difficult for him to call Rama to bury their past differences and unite their forces for 2019. Is an Osmeña-Rama re-unification weird?
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