Tom, Mike to battle for mayor in 2019
Cebu City may see another battle of political titans in May 2019 elections as both Mayor Tomas Osmeña and former mayor Michael Rama have openly expressed their intentions to run for the city’s top post.
Rama said yesterday that if Osmeña will not be suspended for the cases that have piled up against him before the Office of the President, then he is left with no choice but to run for mayor.
According to him, the people in the barangays have long wanted Osmeña booted out because the programs and projects of the city government are not allegedly run properly.
“Dugay ra gusto sa mga tawo sa barangay nga i-suspend na siya aron inig suspend, tarungon pagdala ni (Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella) and suportahan ang programa sa Team Rama, i-activate, i-functional,” Rama told reporters.
In a separate interview, Osmeña has welcomed Rama's plan.
“He can run. I don't care. This is a free country. The people should have a choice,” Osmeña said.
“Why would I stop him from running? That's why we have elections. Is he threatening that if he is going to run, ako hadlok kaayo ko, I'm terrified that he's running? Sige dagan,” he added.
Complaints against Mayor Osmeña, head of the Bando OsmeñaPundok Kauswagan, have been piling up before the Office of the President, and they were all lodged by personalities affiliated with rival Team Rama.
Anecito Canturias, regional headquarters head of the United Nationalist Alliance and former chief of the Cebu City Investment Promotions Center during the time of Rama, filed the first complaint in August 2016 in connection with Osmeña's appointment of two acting mayors when he went on a vacation leave.
In February last year, Apas Barangay Captain Ramil Ayuman lodged an administrative complaint against the mayor and his wife, Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, over the reopening of the Inayawan sanitary landfill.
Ayuman followed it up with another case, accusing Osmeña of owning two units of Dodge Charger vehicles donated by Bigfoot Global Solution to the city government.
In March last year, City Councilors James Anthony Cuenco and Pastor Alcover Jr. also asked President Duterte's office to suspend Osmeña for allowing the operation of a V-hire terminal in Barangay Kamagayan that reportedly violates an existing city ordinance.
If Osmeña ends up getting suspended, Rama said he will opt to run for a seat in Congress or for vice mayor, as the running mate of Labella, who has himself earlier expressed willingness to challenge Osmeña for mayorship.
Labella and Rama are allies at the Barug Team Rama.
If Osmeña will not be suspended, however, Rama said he will be the mayoralty candidate of his local party.
Rama and Osmeña first clashed in the May 2013 elections, in which Rama garnered 217,448 votes against Osmeña's 211,072 votes. That's a margin of 6,376 votes.
In 2016, Osmeña snatched the mayorship from Rama by a wider margin of 34,036 votes. He earned a total of 267,222 compared to Rama's 233,186.
Rama contested his opponent's win, and the case is still pending before the Commission on Elections tribunal.
Yesterday, Rama said he was hoping that Labella would not run as mayor to avoid any conflict in the party.
Labella already clarified on Wednesday that although he is ready to run for mayor, he is also not closing his doors to the possibility of instead just running for a third term as vice mayor.
“It has always been my consistent position that I will abide by and obey what is the collective sentiment of the group that even the group would say that I will quit politics, I will obey it,” he said.
Councilor Joel Garganera, also of Barug Team Rama, said he takes pride in the unity of their party.
“These are gymnastics. This is the beauty of our party because we can say whatever we want to say but at the end of the day, we will sort things out and in the coming election, there will only be one candidate,” he said.