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Thursday, March 04, 2004
Sonny thanks critics for rise in popularity
By Linette C. Ramos
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
SEN. John “Sonny” Osmeña thanked his cousin Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and his other critics in Cebu for causing his approval rating in different poll surveys to go up.
The Cebuano senator said Tomas’ meanness created a backlash and that the people are now more supportive of him and are sympathetic to him because of it.
Sonny, a guest candidate of the administration K4, now ranks third among senatorial candidates in the Feb. 17 to 25 Social Weather Stations survey.
He claims to have a 40 percent approval rating and that he has the support of 50 percent of the voters nationwide.
“I’m thankful to Tommy because his move to bar me from the stage during campaign sorties brought me publicity and support. They will suffer from a backlash because of what they did. People will support me all the more,” he said in an interview over radio dyHP yesterday morning.
Welcome
“You’re welcome. Expect more of it,” the mayor replied in his regular press conference yesterday noon.
Gov. Pablo Garcia and Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano had also warned the administration party not to allow Sonny on stage with President Arroyo when they campaign in Cebu.
Meanwhile, criticisms on his financial assistance to a foundation headed by congressional aspirant Aristotle Batuhan prompted Sonny to make changes.
The senator asked Pahina San Nicolas Barangay Captain Cenon Bacus to replace Batuhan in handling his free medical services program for the poor at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
He prefers Bacus because Batuhan won’t join him in supporting the candidacy of President Arroyo and other K-4 candidates.
Yesterday, Batuhan resigned from the Panagtambayayong Para sa Bag-ong Sugbo Foundation Inc. board of directors, where he sits as president.
Maneuvers
“I want to spare the beneficiaries of the foundation from being affected by the political maneuvers of (Tomas) Osmeña and Rep. Antonio Cuenco. The health needs of the people are much too important to be sacrificed,” he said.
Sonny and Batuhan are subjects of a graft complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, which Tomas filed last week.
Even if his cousin courses his assistance to the foundation through individuals other than Batuhan, the mayor said Sonny “can no longer undo a crime.”
“It is already fully docu-mented. It is not only illegal, it is also highly immoral of him to give undue and unwarranted advantage to a fly-by-night organization using government funds,” the mayor said.
He earlier accused Sonny of using his Priority Development Assistance Fund to strengthen the candidacy of Batuhan, Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino’s candidate for congressman in the south district.
No big deal
Sonny said the mayor should not make a big deal out of his P9-million assistance to poor patients of the city’s south district, since most senators also have health programs in government hospitals.
He said his only role was to give a recommendation for VSMMC to use the funds for the patients from the south district.
Batuhan was only tasked to screen the beneficiaries through his foundation, the senator said.
None of them were able to get hold of the P9 million since the Department of Budget and Management released it directly to VSMMC.
“Ningtiyabaw na sad sila (aning kang Batuhan). Who should I turn to when they won’t help me? It’s always like this, if it’s John Osmeña who makes a move, it creates a lot of trouble,” Sonny said.
When he is not busy campaigning in other regions, Sonny said he will come home to Cebu to help in the campaign of “embattled” candidates Batuhan and Cebu Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (6th district).
(March 4, 2004 issue)
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