WHY are you harassing the newly elected Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chairpersons?
This was the question Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña threw to the opposition in a Facebook post dated May 17.
“That’s tantamount to corrupting minors. Are you so desperate to cling on to the last vote in the (City) Council? Is there no end to your despair?” he added.
Less than two weeks from now, the SK chairpersons in all 80 barangays in the city will elect their president and board.
The presidents of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) and the SK Federation will both sit as ex-officio members of the City Council. At present, both Bando Osmeña Pundok Kausawagan (BOPK) and the opposition each have eight members in the council.
Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, the presiding officer, is also a member of the opposition.
Speculations have circulated online that the opposition is organizing meetings with the newly elected SK heads reportedly to woo them.
“Go ahead. Talk to them. You have nothing to offer them anyway. I, on the other hand, am willing to explain every policy, decision, and project I want them to participate in. And no matter how much you promise or talk, I am still the mayor,” Osmeña said.
“I will give all the SKs (allied or not) the opportunity to HELP Cebu. You are trying to use them to HURT Cebu. They will choose wisely what they want to do,” he wrote.
A text message addressed to the SK chairpersons has also caught the mayor’s attention. The texter, who is claiming to work with the Cebu City Youth Office (CCYO), invited the SK heads to dinner yesterday in a hotel reportedly to discuss the guidelines of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“We just received the copy from DILG and we will be distributing them tomorrow (May 19) night,” reads the message.
Jess Anthony dela Cruz, CCYO head, denied that an invitation to such an activity had been sent out.
He added that the SK chairs may get their DILG memorandums and orientation on May 21.
Opposition Councilors Joel Garganera and Raymond Alvin Garcia denied the allegation.
For Garganera, it is the mayor who is trying to influence the political views of the youth leaders.
Osmeña earlier said he wants to give honorariums and scholarships to the newly elected SK officials because he wants to develop a new breed of leaders.
“Kung unsa iyang buhaton, kami ang pasanginlan (Whatever he does, we end up getting accused of doing). There’s an election coming for them, so we might as well leave them be,” Garganera said. (RTF)