IT’S still a year before the next midterm elections (if there would be one) in May next year, but the political cauldron in Cebu City has started to boil even if the opposition is still uncertain as to who would be its bet against Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Yesterday, Vice Mayor Edgar Labella admitted during an interview with “Frankahay Ta” at radio dyCM (1152AM) that he is the anointed candidate of PDP-Laban for Cebu City mayor. President Duterte and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez have given him the green light to run, he said. But he will still consult his party mates in PDP-Laban Cebu City chapter and Barug Team Rama because former mayor Mike Rama has declared that he would run for mayor against Mayor Tomas.
Mayor Tomas is not daunted by Rama or Labella. He even dared the two of them to run against him, something that some political observers consider as a political ploy.
In a three-cornered race for mayor, Tomas would win hands down. Some of my friends believe that even in a one-on-one race between Mayor Tomas and either Rama or Labella, the incumbent mayor still has the upper hand. In politics, this is called equity of the incumbent.
Mike Rama, who believes that he was cheated by Mayor Tomas in the last elections, thinks he can still beat Mayor Tomas. Rama’s brand of politics is what Mayor Tomas would want his opponent to possess.
On the other hand, would Labella still run for mayor if Rama insists on running? The answer is yes. Labella should run because he would lose face to President Duterte and House Speaker Alvarez. It’s already known that Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino wants Labella to run for mayor against Mayor Tomas. Mayor Tomas called Dino a “cockroach” in one of their verbal skirmishes.
Neutral observers however believe that Mayor Tomas is still the man to beat in any political exercise in Cebu City as proven in past electoral exercises. Consider that in the recent elections, Mayor Tomas and his BOPK got the majority of the barangay captains and Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) chairpersons despite Rama’s braggadocio.
The barangay and SK elections are apolitical under the law but these were actually a battle between the group of Rama and Labella against that of Mayor Tomas and his BOPK. Mayor Tomas now has the numbers. He has 48 barangay captains against the 32 that are allied with Rama’s group and 41 SK chairpersons against 37 for Rama. These numbers should be enough reason for Rama and Labella to decide that their group should only have one candidate.
Most of the city councilors are now members of PDP-Laban but Rama is still hanging on to his Barug Team Rama and UNA, the party of former vice president Jejomar Binay, allegedly because of his party principle. My fearless forecast is that after the presidents of the SK federation and the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) shall have been elected and the BOPK becomes the majority in the City Council, some city councilors might move to BOPK.
With the coming midterm elections, the candidates of the administration at the local government level, like Cebu City, have the advantage over the opposition. My compañero already predicted who among the Cebu City councilors would move in to the BOPK.