The new political landscape in Cebu

We were in Copenhagen last Sunday when the European Union (EU) held its general elections. This is why we saw so many political posters in almost all the Scandinavian cities we visited. I heard that there was a huge turnout of voters, but we really didn’t see this on our bus tours. In London, we heard that the big breaking news was the up and coming resignation of UK Prime Minister Theresa May… which tells us that the end of the Brexit issue is near. I learned from our friends in London that Brexit lost steam in the last three years. So perhaps the UK will not leave the EU at all.

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Allow me now to talk about the political situation in the island of Cebu. Let’s start with Cebu City, where the political battle was between the BOPK candidates and Barug-PDP Laban. Our new Cebu City mayor is Edgar Labella and vice-mayor is Michael Rama. But BOPK has nine councilors; while Barug only has seven councilors…so this really isn’t an election that one can say cheated the Filipino voter. It seems that the Cebuano voters voted for their respective candidates. But BOPK still has Rep. Raul del Mar for the North District of Cebu City and Rep. Bebot Abellanosa for the South District. So it really is a mix voting in Cebu City.

With this news, Cebu City hopes that the three-year delay of the Arena and SMX of SM that was blocked by Mayor Osmeña is over. We expect Cebu City to finally join Mega Cebu, which Mayor Osmeña didn’t want Cebu City to join, but the rest of Cebu joined this group. Perhaps it is high time to restore the project of Rep. Raul del Mar to create the Metro Cebu Development Council (MCDC) along the lines of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), but because the Osmeñas blocked it for more than two decades, it never became a reality. But this was something that Mega Cebu members wanted to create… so this is a strong possibility now.

As we pointed out, the three Osmeña political giants lost in the May 13th elections. This is led by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, senatorial candidate Serge Osmeña and former senator and now Toledo City Mayor John “Sonny” Osmena. Cebu City Councilor Renato “Jun” Osmeña won his reelection…but he doesn’t have anything in common with his Osmeña uncles and belongs to the Barug-PDP Laban Party. While many thought that Mayor Osmeña was a stronger candidate then Mayor-elect Edgar Labella, however Mayor Osmeña was insulted by Pres. Duterte in many of his speeches and don’t forget Duterte is also a Cebuano who moved to Davao.

Now in the province of Cebu, the big news was the stunning win of former Cebu governor and now Congresswoman Gwen Garcia. Her vice-gubernatorial candidate Daphne Salimbangon lost to Gov. Hilario Davide III. He probably knew he will lose to Rep. Gwen, which is why he ran as a vice-gubernatorial bet. How Gov. Davide will block Gov. Garcia is anyone’s guess.

But the province of Cebu has these winners for Congress. The 1st District went to Rep. Eddiegul Gullas, Rep. Cameniro won the 2nd District, and Gov. Garcia’s younger brother PJ Garcia won over Sonny Osmeña in the 3rd District. The 4th District was won by Rep. Janice Salimbangon, the mother of Daphne Salimbangon. The 5th District was won by Rep. Duke Frasco against Rep. Red Durano. Take note that the Duranos ruled this district for over 70 years. The 6th District was won by Rep. Lolypop Ouano Dizon, while the 7th District was won by Rep. Raymond Calderon. The lone District of Lapu-Lapu was won by Rep. Paz Radaza.

At this point, Cebu now has a very pro-Duterte local government. But its members of Congress are not identified with Duterte. But it is a different ballgame now that local government officials are with the President’s support. I have no doubt that these politicians will have to work together for the sake of Cebu. But we shall see what happens on the first of July when they all take their oaths of duty. So we’ll just have to wait.

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With a new set of Senators, we shall see whether or not this new set of legislators would support the move of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte who wanted to change the 1987 Constitution and install a federal form of government. While the Yellowtards who have praised then Pres. Benigno Aquino continue to accept his belief never to change the Constitution named after his mother… however the ballgame has changed.

However the mid-term election has changed things because many of the local government officials are pro-Duterte and therefore would use their political power to promote federalism. For instance, in Cebu Province, Gov. Jun Davide was against federalism. But by July he will be replaced by the pro-federalist Gov. Gwen F. Garcia. This is good for federalists like me!

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