WHEN he addresses Cebu City constituents today, Mayor Tomas Osmeña will not focus on promising projects but will remind them what it takes for the City to succeed.
Teamwork will mean victory for the City, Osmeña said.
“In essence, we’re going to emphasize that this is one community that works well together,” he told reporters in an interview after he took his oath of office Saturday night for his third and final term.
Unlike his previous inaugural addresses that teemed with promises of projects and accounting of their accomplishments, Osmeña said his speech today will be brief.
“I’m not going to cite all our projects and present an accounting because we always give people an accounting regularly, even with the Asean summit spending. We’ll just tell the people that it’s important to work together. We are not for projects but for consolidating the entire community,” he said.
As in an election campaign, the mayor believes a city cannot be run by one person alone.
“It’s not just one individual, not one Osmeña who is responsible. You can see in the last election, the result was not the product of one Osmeña. It was basically the work of a lot of people. It was the teamwork of BOPK, that is why nobody lost,” said the mayor.
Down to the sitio level, political leaders, organizers and relatives of the candidates worked together on the nitty-gritty of the campaign to ensure a landslide victory for Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), he said.
Where one candidate is weak, the stronger candidates help get support and votes for him.
The City’s level of success, he said, will depend on this kind of teamwork.
As for Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s pronouncement that she will meet head-on whatever resistance there will be in the recovery of Capitol lots, Osmeña said, “We’re here to defend our interests and our constituents.”
In his inaugural speech last year, the mayor talked about projects and plans that will help make Cebu City the most livable city in Asia.
Numerous projects have been undertaken towards that goal, he said, including some that are not tangible.
“If you cannot see it, I don’t know what else to say. There are many things that don’t meet the eye, like the Asean summit for example. What was the biggest accomplishment during the summit? The CICC? No! The biggest accomplishment was that there was no violence, when you see everyone working to have peace and order, when you see the mayor deal with militants to prevent any violence,” he said.
In his speech during the oath-taking ceremony of BOPK at the Cebu City Coliseum last Saturday night, the mayor said their supporters’ unselfishness and willingness to work together and make a sacrifice helped them win all positions in the city.
He thanked the barangay captains and their political leaders “for sparing them the embarrassment of being a loser, because there was none.”
“That’s because of teamwork. The other side calls it rubber stamp, we call it victory. Now we will work to guard our direction, and make sure no one will get in the way,” Osmeña added.
Early this morning, the portion of Osmeña Blvd. fronting the City Savings Building will be closed to vehicular traffic for the 8 a.m. inaugural session of the City Council, where the mayor will deliver his inaugural address.
The portion fronting the Rizal Public Library will also be closed from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. today for the unveiling of the Sinulog Hall and the testimonial dinner for the newly elected city officials. (LCR)
