WITH two barangay captains and around 50 supporters, Georgia Os-meña formally launched yesterday her candidacy for city mayor at the monument of her late father, former mayor Sergio “Serging” Osmeña Jr.

Georgia said her candidacy is final and she will not accept the offer of her cousin, former senator John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña, to be his running mate.

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Georgia said Sonny’s “intentions are not the same as mine, his intentions are not to serve Cebu City so I don’t think we’re on the same agenda.”

Several loyal followers of Serging and two barangay captains who signed the manifesto against Vice Mayor Michael Rama attended the launching of the “Go Cebu” movement yesterday morning.

But, they said they have not decided yet if they would join Georgia’s lineup.

Lineup

Georgia said the final list of Go Cebu candidates will be known when they file their certificate of candidacy (COC) on Dec. 1.

They will run as independent candidates and will field a complete line-up of councilors in the north and south districts. They will not field candidates for Congress.

“Go Cebu is a play on words that calls on all Cebuanos who love Cebu to come together and join hands in restoring Cebu City to its premier position as the queen city of the south, a beautiful paradise to live in and a great tourist destination to visit. At the same time, it stands for Georgia Osmeña for Cebu mayor,” she said.

Agsungot Barangay Captain Pastor Alcover Jr., Pit-os Barangay Captain Nilo Tariman, former San Jose Barangay Captain Jun Arinasa, and Georgia’s nephew Ian Osmeña joined her yesterday morning.

Not decided

Interviewed separately, they said they are supporting Georgia’s candidacy but have not decided yet if they would run for city councilor.

“Daan na man gyud ko nga dili kang Mike Rama, 2002 pa lang niingon na ko na ug mudagan siya pagkamayor dili gyud ko musuporta. Mas maayo gyud si Georgia kaysa ni Mike. Maayo mustorya si Georgia, si Mike magsige man ug liko-liko, walay klarong body language (I’ve long been against Mike Rama. I’ve said before that if he runs for mayor, I won’t support him.

Georgia is a better candidate than Mike Rama.),” Tariman said.

In his news conference yesterday, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he will just let Rep. Raul del Mar handle north district barangay captains who will not support BOPK.

“Let them do what they want, I’m running in the south, let Raul del Mar handle that issue,” he said.

Ian, son of former city councilor Rogelio “Jingjing” Osmeña, said he has not thought about joining politics: “I’m just here to support my aunt.”

Pablo Tinga, who worked with Serging at City Hall in the 70s, is also supporting Georgia’s candidacy.

Tinga is Tomas’ consultant on revenue program and activities, local taxation and tax cases, economic enterprise and services.

“It’s a sentimental thing to him, he’s a very loyal Osmeñanista, I can understand his position,” Tomas said yesterday.

In front of her father’s monument at the North Reclamation Area, Georgia and her supporters released balloons after making personal wishes for Cebu City.

Symbolic

“If it were not for my father I would not be here and I wouldn’t have developed a love for Cebu. We are lucky to have a statue, and I want to use this as a symbol. We’re also standing on the Cebu reclamation and we can see the bridge from here, which are projects of my dad. So it means a lot to me, for me to start my political career here,” she added.

Georgia said she didn’t accept Sonny’s offer to run as his vice mayor because there are a lot of issues she wants to address as mayor, and not just preside over the City Council.

“Then he says ‘I’ll let you run the city and I’m going to resign. If he resigns after he gets there, what are his reasons for running? If it’s not to serve the city, then what are his reasons? Why will he make us go through this ordeal of campaigning and asking people to vote for us and when he finally gets there, he’s going to resign? His
intentions are not the same as mine,” she added. (LCR)