A BIG party is being planned for Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s birthday on July 26, which is expected to become another political gathering of Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).

Barangay captains, councilors and the mayor’s political leaders will be invited to the event being planned to be held at the South Road Properties (SRP), City Councilor Eugenio Faelnar said.

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City Administrator Francisco Fernandez told reporters yesterday that they will also check if the mayor is interested to deliver his State of the City Address during the occasion.

The mayor will turn 61 on July 26 while his wife Margot will turn 60 on July 25. The couple will also celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary on July 23.

“He instructed me to invite the barangay captains, barangay councilors and the BOPK political leaders will also be invited. So murag mahug gyud na gathering sa political supporters. Ang mga kapitan naa say giandam para sa mayor (The barangay captains have also prepared something for the mayor),” Faelnar told Sun.Star Cebu.

It will not be a manifesto endorsing Osmeña’s candidacy, he said, but a dance and song number they will perform during the dinner celebration.

Plans will be finalized when the mayor arrives on July 15 from his medical check-up at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Osmeña has a lot to thank for on his birthday, after his seven-month battle with stage IV urinary bladder cancer, which doctors confirmed in October last year.

After several chemotherapy sessions at the M.D. Anderson from October 2008 to March this year, he underwent surgery to remove his urinary bladder, prostate and around 40 lymph nodes.

He was declared cancer-free after the surgery and is now undergoing several tests in Houston to check if the cancer has recurred.