Osmeña vs. Labella?

Before the mass oathtaking of new PDP-Laban members at the Plaza Independencia yesterday, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who was not invited to the affair, volunteered the information that members of the administration party are reportedly required to attend seminars conducted by the Communist Party of China (CPC). House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez denied that yesterday.

Chances are Osmeña may have just have anticipated PDP-Laban developments. In July this year, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and around 20 others visited China and talked with CPC officials about cooperation and party-building. The meeting was a follow-up to a previous visit to China in December when the PDP-Laban agreed to have members undergo policy training at the CPC school in Fujian. Pimentel said at that time, though, that the plan was still being negotiated.

But whether what Osmeña claimed was true or not, the fact that he made that insinuation could mean he would no longer hold back in hitting President Duterte’s political party. And that it was made a day before Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and some Barug Team Rama councilors joined yesterday’s activity may not just be mere coincidence. He seems to be preparing for the 2019 elections.

For a while, Osmeña had expressed his belief that Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino would run for mayor against him in the coming elections. But it now looks more likely, following yesterday’s oathtaking, that Labella may end up as the PDP-Laban’s anointed. That would be a logical move considering that former mayor Michael Rama has not been invited to join the PDP-Laban because of the president’s claim linking him to the illegal drugs trade.

Many things can still change, though, from now until the deadline of the filing of certificates of candidacy for the 2019 polls. Yet the 2019 picture is beginning to take form now with yesterday’s oathtaking where Labella was a prominent player. With no other politician in PDP-Laban higher in stature than Labella in Cebu City, his chance of being the party’s anointed has gotten bigger.