FORMER Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama will run again for mayor--not for public service but to redeem his name from President Duterte’s accusation that he is an illegal drug protector and to prove that he was cheated in the last elections.
In our interview in “Fankahay Ta” over dyCM (1152AM) on Monday, Rama stressed those reasons after declaring he is running again for mayor even if his decision is, according to him, still subject to the decision of his party mates. A friend asked me if that was not being inconsistent.
Vice Mayor Edgar Labella later told us in that the PDP-Laban, whose Cebu City chapter he heads, has endorsed his candidacy for mayor. While Rama and Labella don’t want to run against each other, I could see them on a head-on collision considering what Rama said: “I am decided.”
If this happens, it would be as if Mayor Tomas Osmeña is already reelected. In a three-cornered fight, the incumbent always has the advantage. Mayor Osmeña must therefore be grinning widely.
Since Rama is bent on running for mayor, he therefore no longer needs his party mates to choose him over Labella. But doesn’t Rama know that majority of his party mates want Labella to run for mayor and not him?
I think Councilor Joey Daluz’s so-called solution would not even reach first base. Daluz proposed that Rama should be Labella’s vice mayor. Daluz, when asked by dyCM’s Jason Monteclar, eventually admitted that that would be his solution to avoid a split in their party. But would Rama agree to that?
In Torni Frank’s column yesterday, Labella has set for June 30 his announcement on whether he would run for mayor or just run for vice mayor. And if Labella would run for vice mayor instead of running for mayor possibly against Rama and Mayor Tomas, which party would he join?
Labella did not deny talks that he is being wooed to run as Mayor Tomas’s vice mayor. If this happens, it would be goodbye Mike Rama. Perhaps, Rama has a better chance if he runs for congressman in the city’s south district, which is his political bailiwick.
Rama would perhaps be in high spirits if Labella pairs with Mayor Tomas as he would no longer consult his party mates on his decision to run for mayor. Many of them don’t actually want him to run. Incidentally, Labella had admitted that he has no personal quarrel with Tomas. I would like to think Rama would even perhaps urge Labella to decide to transfer sooner.
The big but though is in the camp of Mayor Tomas considering that some of his party mates are interested to run for vice mayor. Although Tomas has not yet announced who would be his running mate, I learned from a reliable source that BOPK has three possible bets for vice mayor: former city councilor Nestor Archival, who ran and lost for vice mayor in the 2016 polls, and City Councilors Joy Young and Mary Ann de los Santos.
A friend said that if ever Labella decides to run for mayor in a three-cornered race, Mayor Tomas should choose for his running mate City Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos because she is strong in Lahug, her political bailiwick, which has a population of around 35,000. De los Santos used to be in Rama’s team but she left before the 2016 elections after a bitter dispute.