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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Espinoza: Wake up, Mike
By Elias L. Espinoza
FALL. The news that Iraq’s dethroned dictator, Saddam Hussein, had been captured was met with a loud applause from the golfers, who attended the awarding ceremonies in the third Island Tee Golf Tournament of the Mactan Coral Golf Club (MCGC), Mactan-Ebuen Airbase Sunday night.
While the awarding of the prizes for the golf tournament winners was on going, an American, one of those who joined the tournament, approached and asked the emcees to announce the arrest of Iraq’s dictator by the US forces.
The same reaction was reverberated all over the world with the news of Saddam’s arrest. World leaders, even those who criticized the US attack on Iraq’s president, praised US President Bush.
The arrest may help normalize the situation in Iraq but it does not necessarily follow that this will end the political unrest in this oil-rich country.
UNOPPOSED? This time, I will agree with Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña that for him to run unopposed in his reelection bid will not be good for democracy. It was rumored that Malacañang allegedly asked former mayor Alvin Garcia not to run in next year’s polls.
However, Garcia is conspicuously seen in public gatherings and newspaper advertisements and heard in radio programs issuing statements related to next year’s elections.
Given that Garcia will not run, Osmeña will be reelected without an opponent. Iit may be good for the mayor but not to the City’s voters since they will be left without a choice.
Two weeks ago, however, when my friend Jolly Bullozos invited me to a seafood dinner party at his spruce and spacious residence in Liloan, Cebu, I met a long-time friend, who is identified with one of the prominent families of politicians in Cebu.
Choosing to be anonymous, he told me that the opposition in Cebu City is proposing the team of Vice Mayor Michael Rama and former city councilor Ed Labella as standard bearers for the mayoralty and vice mayoralty race, respectively, in next year’s polls.
While he said there is no confirmation yet from Rama on this proposed tandem, the opposition believes a Rama-Labella team can be the strongest challenger to the leadership of Osmeña.
It’s the opposition’s view that the combination of Rama, who hails from the south and Labella from the north, can capture and deliver the votes in the city’s two districts for the opposition party that will also carry the opposition candidates in the national level.
In the last election, Rama garnered the highest number of votes as against the combined votes for Osmeña and former mayor Garcia. This is more than enough reason for the opposition to believe in Rama’s winnability in the mayoralty race.
However, the question that hangs in the minds of the opposition is whether Rama has the guts to run against his partymate, mayor Osmeña. Friends I talked with believe that if Rama runs for city mayor, he can give Osmeña a run for his money.
Despite Rama’s apparent silence on this proposal, my friend was very optimistic that the vice mayor will change his mind and accept the offer since Councilor George Rama, his cousin, has already declared his support for FPJ.
With Rama’s popularity, which is devoid of illegal or immoral issues as an elected official, I strongly believe that he can be the only strongest contender in the mayoralty race against Osmeña. Wake up, Mike!
LOST. Earlier, I wrote about a balikbayan from the US who lost his bag that contained his passport and other valuables while eating at a mall’s foodcourt.
Yesterday, Castor Olario called me again to ask for help hoping that his passport will be returned since he is scheduled to return to LA on Dec. 21.
He is appealing to anyone who might have seen his passport to return it to the security personnel of SM since his scheduled departure is very close and applying for a new passport will take sometime.
(December 16, 2003 issue)
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