Osmeña in anti-Marcos rally

IFIND Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña's presence in the march-rally protesting the burial of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani interesting. I thought he was at the Plaza Independencia to lead the commemoration of the 153rd birth anniversary of the authentic hero Andres Bonifacio. But he delivered a speech, no, not in front of the pro-Duterte rallyists but with the anti-Marcos group.

Osmeña was not in the country when Marcos declared martial law on Sept. 21, 1972. He was with his father, former senator Sergio Osmeña Jr,, and other members of the family on exile in the United States. His brother, Sergio “Serging” Osmeña III was left behind, jailed together with Eugenio Lopez, scion of the family that owns the ABS-CBN TV network. He and Lopez escaped from jail five years later (1977) staying abroad until Marcos was ousted in 1986.

In fairness to the Osmeñas, their living abroad was not voluntary but forced. Marcos defeated Serging in the 1969 presidential election, an exercise that was marred by widespread cheating. Many believed Serging was the rightful winner like Corazon Aquino was in the snap presidential election in 1986. He was therefore a threat to Marcos's plan to rule the country for the duration of his lifetime and was one of the targets for arrest when martial law was declared.

Also, the anti-Marcos movement did not involve only Filipinos in the Philippines but also those who were on exile abroad, like former senator Raul Manglapus. They helped expose abroad the oppression and exploitation heaped on the Filipino people by the Marcos dictatorship, resulting in countries like the US to pressure Marcos to loosen his hold on the country's politics. The lifting of military rule in 1981 and the sham elections held were results of that pressure.

So Tomas was not exactly “daw-li” ( dawat og limpyo) when he was voted mayor by Cebuanos in the 1988 elections. And while he is vindictive, a major weakness, I think he has been consistent in his antiMarcos stance. Also, like President Rodrigo Duterte when he was Davao City mayor, Osmeña has long been friendly with militants and non-government organizations. His most trusted man, Francisco “Bimbo” Fernandez, was an urban poor organizer.

So I give it to Tomas for waxing poetic and telling anti-Marcos millennials he would be with them until his last breath.

*** While we are still on the Osmeña topic, I say that his displeasure with the giant developers SM Prime Holdings, Ayala Land Inc. and Filinvest Land Inc. seems to already border on obsession. SM, in consortium with Ayala, and Filinvest bought South Road Properties (SRP) lots when Osmeña's bitter political rival, Michael Rama, was mayor. Osmeña remains determined to rescind the sale, something that would be legally difficult to do.

There's a phrase bandied around by the Marcoses and their loyalists to cool down the protest actions against the burial of the former dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani: move on. While that phrase is not applicable to the Marcoses issue, I think that can be applied also in the case of Osmeña's obsession with the three developers. For the sake of the city's good economic health, I think it's time for the mayor to move on.

But that is precisely the problem. He couldn't. Which is what is unfortunate with his style of leadership. He considers his personal intentions as serving public interest. I mean, it's good to go after the three developers if they really disadvantaged the city but it would be wrong to run them down just because they dealt with his political rival.