Attention, Cebu City politicians: Elections are over
I heard from many friends the disturbing news that officials of Partido Barug have been outdoing each other in getting positions that would be vacant or available after they take their oaths on June 30. I really didn’t want to write this so as not to add more fuel to this ugly piece of news, but apparently The FREEMAN reported that Cebu City vice mayor-elect Michael Rama refused to give the details on this issue but said it is a “big challenge” for him as president of the local party.
We learned from that report that the conflict between councilor-elect Prisca Niña Mabatid and outgoing councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover started before the elections when she accused him of working to oust her from the official lineup of Partido Barug. Frankly speaking, the elections are already over and it’s time to bury the hatchet and work together. If there’s any reason why the Cebuano voters wanted Mayor Tomas Osmeña to retire it’s because he was a mayor who loved to quarrel with anyone and that’s a huge turn-off to many people. Remember Rico’s Lechon? I’m sure you do.
At this point Partido Barug must show that politics is only for election time and we must work together as a team rather than prepare for the next elections three years away. You folks don’t even realize that the election in 2022 is going to be a presidential election and it means that a presidentiable needs local government official support which, for me, is a big issue. But at this point, no one can predict who will be in the presidential line up because a lot of things can happen in the next three years.
As far as the local elections are concerned, I can foresee that Mayor Tommy Osmeña will try to run again for mayor. Now against whom will be a very good question. I don’t doubt that vice mayor-elect Michael Rama will try his luck once more and run for mayor but this all depends on how mayor-elect Edgar Labella handles the problems of Cebu City. I’m no prophet, but allow me to say that if Labella handles the mayorship with tact and diplomacy and moves Cebu City forward, then this means that the Cebuano voter may just let Mayor Osmeña continue with his retirement. Now as far as vice mayor-elect Mike Rama is concerned, again, all things depend on how he handles his position, especially that the BOPK has more councilors in the City Council than Partido Barug.
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Frankly speaking, I knew that Rep. Gwen Garcia was going to win as governor of Cebu. Hence, one issue always on my mind was the construction of the 20-story Resource Center, that Govenor Hilario Davide clearly pushed in a hurry, knowing especially that such a building will only worsen the traffic along clogged Escario Street. In fact, a week before the May 13 elections, Mayor Tomas Osmeña appeared on our 888 News Forum in Marco Polo Plaza and although I really didn’t want to ask a question the media in attendance sort of forced me to ask a question.
I sort of obliged my fellow media practitioners and asked Mayor Osmeña: “You blocked the Ciudad Project along Banilad Road using traffic as your reason that CITOM had to study its impact on the traffic along that road but you didn’t block the proposal of Governor Davide’s 20-story Resource Center even if you know that Escario Street even has a worse traffic situation than in Banilad?” Mayor Osmeña replied by saying that with the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Escario Street won’t be traffic clogged anymore as people will chose to ride the BRT rather than use their cars.
I just left the mayor’s answer at that, but in my book he didn’t give a proper answer. I live in Capitol Hills. Is the mayor telling me that I would have to walk half a kilometer from my house just to ride the BRT? What if the BRT isn’t going to where I’m going? In short the 20-story Resource Center will only worsen the traffic along Escario Street plus the reality that the BRT isn’t going to be ready in the next two to three years. But then Mayor Tom has placed too much confidence in the BRT when he shouldn’t have. At this point, I’m glad that the lawyers of Garcia are moving to stop this project and I hope they succeed!
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