Mayor Labella and Vice Mayor Rama are doing very well

There is abundant evidence showing that Cebu City is on the way to regaining its former glory with Mayor Edgardo C. Labella and Vice Mayor Michael L. Rama at the helm. I was sitting between them last Monday during the University of Visayas' GAHOM or Grand Alumni Homecoming. I congratulated the mayor for having been unanimously elected as overall chairman of the City Mayors' League of the Philippines. He was chosen over the mayors of Manila, Quezon City, Davao City, and Cagayan de Oro City. Thus, the whole nation's city executives see in Mayor Edgar the mark of a true leader, the competence, commitment, and character of a great leader. No other Cebu City mayor has had that distinction in all history.

I also commended my former Law student, Mike Rama, for his able leadership as president of the association of arbitrators of the Philippines. He is a hard-working vice mayor who doubles as a strong pillar of labor justice in the country. Mike was an excellent HR manager of the Cebu Oxygen and Acetylene Co., an Aboitiz business firm. He was also an active advocate for speedy, expeditious, and inexpensive labor-dispute settlement. He, together with Atty. Joy Pesquera, Atty. Manuel Legaspi, and myself are national officers of the NCMB NGO partner, the AVAP or Association of Voluntary Arbitration of the Philippines. What matters most is that Edgar and Mike are a team, not like the tandem in the Capitol.

Edgar is a competent executive and administrator, an excellent implementor of laws. Mike is an outstanding parliamentarian, a great visionary and thinker, like his late grandfather, Don Vicente Rama. Edgar has the character of Isko Moreno in his focus on executing the laws and cleaning up the city, minus the tendency to be impulsive and overbearing that is starting to manifest in the city mayor of Manila. Mike has the mark of a charismatic parliamentarian, a conciliator and mediator who might be able to make city councilor Nina Mabatid a very close friend (again) of Jun Alcover. What is good about the Edgar-Mike team is that they are open and candid with each other. They have different styles but their hearts and souls are the same. They love to serve the people and offer their lives for Cebu.

Cebu City is very lucky with a mayor who is sincere, humble, friendly, and very well-grounded on the realities confronting the city. Mayor Edgar talks to vendors, street cleaners, kargadors, waiters, janitors, and messengers. He is respected by people in high places but he remains the mayor of the masses. The city is also fortunate to have a very brilliant lawyer, Mike Rama, who has dedicated his career to public service, who thinks not of making money but of leaving a legacy of competent, committed, and conscientious service to Cebu City and to Cebuanos. Every time I pray, I always ask God to make their partnership last.

Mayor Edgar Labella is better than Isko. He is a lawyer and a former ombudsman director. Vice Mayor Rama is better than Honey Lacuna or Baste. Mike is a great lawyer and a dedicated public servant. He is in government not because of his family name. He is there because of his own merits, credentials, and performance. May the Lord bless the Edgar-Mike tandem and use it for a cleaner, fairer, and happier Queen City of the South.