A shaping City Council

Whoever said “when it rains, it pours” (aside, of course, from singer Luke Combs) must be referring to the unbelievable twist of good fortunes favoring mayor-elect Edgardo Labella, of the PDP-Laban, the political party of President Rodrigo Duterte. The rain of fortunate events started in the May 13 elections, when Labella convincingly beat Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, to rid the BOPK of its ballyhooed coat of invincibility. The rain did not just continue last Friday. In that day’s issue of The FREEMAN, it poured with two news reports that appeared to significantly boost the administration of the incoming mayor even weeks before his formal takeover of City Hall.

First was the news that the Commission on Elections, in an en banc resolution, nullified the certificate of candidacy of Councilor Alvin Arcilla, a BOPK bet. To recall, Arcilla placed number six (with 104,476 votes) among the winning councilors of the city’s north district, along with five partymates Sisinio Andales, Nestor Archival, Alvin Dizon, Lea Japson, and Joy Young. The immediate effect of the Commission on Elections ruling was to consider Arcilla as a non-candidate. He could not be voted upon and so Dizon, with 102,911 votes, the candidate who got the seventh position in the voting tally, had to be moved up to the sixth spot. In turn, Raymond Garcia, of PDP-Laban, who after the initial counting was number eight, (with 101,578 votes) had to go one rank higher, the seventh, and his eighth place position had to be assumed by ninth placer Guardo (with 99,115 votes). In other words, Guardo, who lost, when the initial counting was done, would now be among the winners. As the initial results had it, there were six BOPK councilors in the north and three in the south or a total of nine City Council members as against seven Partido Barug/PDP-Laban members.

The second news item reported that Guardo left the BOPK to join PDP-Laban, the party of mayor-elect Labella. Frankly, many persons including me, found his reason for changing party loyalties as unprincipled. Such a Guardo act could even be deemed more of treachery than disloyalty. But, for practical politics such vomiting act of indecency should make Labella smile, for Guardo will be one councilor out of the BOPK loop and into the PDP-Laban camp. When the Comelec decision shall be enforced, and Arcilla fails to get a restraining order from the Supreme Court, Guardo can take his oath as a re-elected councilor, and, more importantly, as part of the Labella administration. His shifting alliances can alter, no matter how modestly, the numerical equation in the city council to eight BOPK members and eight Partido Barug/PDP-Laban members.

Lurking behind the Arcilla disqualification is the case of Councilor Andales. To our information, the cases of Arcilla and Andales are anchored on similar factual circumstances and identical legal bases. The petitions to cancel their COC’s were reportedly filed almost at the same time and the Comelec decisions came out in close succession. It is thus highly likely that the Comelec may soon also meet en banc and rule on the motion for reconsideration filed by Andales. If that should happen, the commissioners are not expected to depart from the line of reasoning they used to cancel Arcilla’s COC. With Andales deemed never to have been a candidate in the May 13 polls, Joel Garganera, another PDP-Laban candidate for councilor, will have to be counted and proclaimed as a winner. The Labella administration will then have nine councilors as against seven from the BOPK.

Labella’s good fortune will perhaps continue to pour if Councilor Dave Tumulak runs true to his character. I do recall that Tumulak won a seat in the city council as part of Team Rama. Not long after Osmeña defeated Rama in the 2016 elections, Tumulak abandoned Team Rama and joined BOPK. Now that Osmeña lost, we will not be surprised if Tumulak rejects Osmena and toes the Labella line. Disloyalty and ingratitude or even treachery may be in Tumulak’s blood, but since Labella needs numbers in the City Council, the new mayor will embrace this turncoat.