Thursday, April 24, 2008 Tomas won’t rely on Tony on plans to annex Cordova
EVEN without Cebu City south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco’s help, Mayor Tomas Osmeña will pursue his proposal to make Cordova town a part of the city.
Osmeña said that if he has to, he will wait until Cuenco is no longer in office to start the legwork in annexing Cordova to Cebu City, making it a part of the new district that he wants to create.
Since the new district would be made up of some barangays in the south district, Cuenco earlier said that he would have to consult on the matter.
Osmeña was irked when he learned of Cuenco’s stand on the issue, that it would be unconstitutional to transfer Cordova from the sixth district to a new district in Cebu City.
“We’ll just get a congressman who will say that it can be done, rather than have a congressman who says it cannot be done. He is saying it’s unconstitutional because Cordova is not contiguous with Cebu City. Why, is Camotes contiguous with Danao City?” he said.
“Following his logic that it cannot be done because Cebu City is not contiguous with Cordova, to me that is yabag! How come they can consolidate it with Liloan”? Osmeña continued.
The mayor said he cannot understand why Cuenco said annexing Cordova cannot be done, yet Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district) is proposing to consolidate the towns of Liloan, Compostela and Cordova to form one district.
While Cordova is too far from Liloan and Compostela, Cordova’s barangay that is nearest to Cebu City is only 575 meters away, said Osmeña.
To clarify the matter, Cuenco said he would ask the Congress Research Bureau to conduct a legal research to find out whether it is possible to make Cordova town a part of the city.
“I was only saying my opinion on the issue based on how I understand the law. Correct me if I’m wrong but from what I understand, to shift one town or barangay to another district, they have to be contiguous. Otherwise, it would not be in consonance with the law,” he said in a phone interview.
Cuenco declined from commenting on Osmeña’s tirade against him, saying he does not want to pick a fight with the mayor.
“There’s nothing personal here so in fairness to Mayor Osmeña, I promise to conduct a legal research here in Congress to find out whether it’s constitutionally legal and possible to annex Cordova, which is located in the sixth district, with the south district of Cebu City,” he continued.
In his news conference yesterday, Osmeña confirmed his falling out with Cuenco but declined from going into the details of their rift.
He said he is no longer willing to work with the legislator, but he assured their row will not affect the delivery of basic services and projects to the south district.
“You can’t rely on him and to me, that’s fatal. If you go to war and you can’t rely on your soldier, it’s better not to go to war with him...He will have no say as far as I’m concerned,” the mayor said.
He declined to comment when asked where their conflict stemmed from.
But Cuenco earlier said he may have upset the mayor when he abruptly left to seek medical treatment in the US during the campaign for the barangay elections, without informing him and other city officials.
Sources at City Hall said Cuenco was not around to support barangay captains who helped him win against businessman Jonathan Guardo in the May 2007 elections.
When asked if their relationship could still be fixed, Osmeña said: “Yeah, he can be barangay councilor, that’s acceptable to me. Like I said, when you get into a political fight and you run away, I will accept your apology but don’t expect the same stature. When someone stabs you in the back, you don’t deal with him...I will not work with someone I can’t rely on,” Osmeña added. (LCR)
