EDITORIAL - A move to save face?

Former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña has hit back at City Hall officials over the controversy surrounding the “destruction” of the Office of the Mayor following his loss in the midterm elections last May.

On Wednesday, Osmeña filed counter-charges before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas against Mayor Edgardo Labella and other City Hall officials after they turned down his request to restore the mayor's office.

The former mayor accused Labella, City Legal Officer Rey Gealon, and City Administrator Floro Casas Jr. of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and committing grave misconduct, and conduct unbecoming of public officials. He also sued Gealon and Casas for alleged usurpation of public functions under the Revised Penal Code.

“The state of the mayor's office in the morning of June 28, 2019 was still a work-in-progress as the first phase of the restoration works had yet to start. However, many of my opponents erroneously characterized it as destruction of government property,” Osmeña said in his complaint, "had the work not been stopped and the restoration pushed through as planned, the alleged ‘destruction’ of the mayor's office would have been rectified, and it would have been restored to its 2016 condition."

By lodging legal complaints against the City Hall officials, it seems the former mayor is very serious in his effort to restore the office he left bare that caused so much uproar among city residents.

The problem, however, is that many Cebuanos were puzzled as to why it took many weeks for Osmeña to surface and offer to shoulder the restoration of the mayor’s office his camp had stripped of its dignity.

He cannot also fault the city residents for believing that his legal move is just a ploy to save face. No one really knows if he can manage to salvage his dying political career from this latest and more serious controversy.