Why it is not Tumulak

For a while, I and few friends thought that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña was doing the unimaginable. We began to believe he might not be running for re-election in 2019. There were no announcements to that effect made by Osmeña though but it somehow appeared to us that his body language (or the absence of it) was quite telling. Each of us then pointed out certain events where Osmeña was either a glaring no-show or when his appointed deputy mayor, Councilor Dave Tumulak, took center stage. In the increasing frequency with which the sanggunian panlungsod member from the south district, instead of Osmeña, had been hogging the limelight, Osmeña seemed to enjoy being less visible. Indeed, we surmised that, for reasons we could not certainly fathom, Osmeña wanted to expose Tumulak further to public scrutiny and put to a test the acceptability of Tumulak's brand of leadership.

I wrote that observation in this column recently. To buttress our thought, I cited specific major events when it was Tumulak, rather than Osmeña who took the public glare in explaining why certain actions were taken by the city administration. He was supposed to have acted for and on behalf of Osmeña without having to explain the absence of his boss.

There has apparently been a change in the scene. In the past few days, Osmeña has no longer allowed his deputy to tackle important public issues. Instead, he has re-assumed his garrulous self in announcing his leadership stand. For example, we imagined that after the Barangay Apas BMO was exposed to have solicited money from businessmen in the barangay, Tumulak would grapple with the extortion problem. We were wrong. It did not happen. He was absent from scene. His silence was loud. It was Osmeña who announced the administrative steps taken by the city administration.

My few friends and I met over a cup of coffee to evaluate our contention. We have to admit our error. It is incorrect to say Osmeña is heading toward retirement. The way he suppressed Tumulak from addressing public issues effectively suggests that he will seek re-election in 2019, assuming that the No-El scenario will not happen. In fact, Osmeña is showing indicative signs that his probable opponent is Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.

Labella, according to the latest reports, is the new leader of the PDP-Laban in Cebu City. He is the highest ranking city official belonging to the party of President Rodrigo Duterte. In taking his oath as the city chairman of the president's party, he has abandoned Team Rama.

From now on, the stream of Malacañang sources will funnel through the office of the vice mayor. It is expected that in this process the popularity of Tumulak will be drowned. The public posturing of the Tumulak will just be swept away by all forms of logistical support to be unleashed by PDP-Laban and placed at the discretion of Labella. This must be the perception of Osmeña. His protégé, Tumulak, is no match. That dreadful loss is certain to happen in a Labella-Tumulak encounter. He takes into account that while he beat Michael Rama, in 2016, a proposition that Rama contests until today, Labella survived his onslaught with much to spare. Osmeña cannot risk losing his grip on City Hall and lose such attendant perks and benefits as might flow from the SRP. To preserve his hold on the city government, Osmeña has to be the one to face Labella.

The Osmeña experiment of making local legislators perform executive functions, while ostensibly done for political expediency is, in fact, a legal anomaly. His devise assaults our accepted political theory of executive-legislative separation of powers. Alas, the mayor's objective of testing the acceptability of councilors, like Tumulak, for higher positions is exposed as improbable by the emergence of the possibility of Labella for mayor.