Saturday, May 10, 2008 Tomas isn’t my spokesperson, Winston says
GOVERNMENT Service Insurance System (GSIS) President Winston Garcia yesterday dismissed reports that he will run as mayor of Cebu City in 2010.
Winston also lashed out at Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña for allegedly circulating rumors that he is running for mayor.
“I want it to put on public record that Tommy Osmeña was never authorized by me to be my official spokesperson or my campaign manager for any elective position,” Garcia told Sun.Star Cebu.
Winston, younger brother of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, led the launching of GSIS Voice Activate Processing System (GVAPS) at the Bantayan Multipurpose Center in Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island yesterday.
“I disown, in a more empathic manner, statements which Tommy Osmeña attributed to me,” he said.
“I don’t know why he is pushing me. Maybe, deep in his heart, he believes that I am qualified to run (and that) I am the person, I am the answer to the ills of Cebu City,” he said.
Big plans
Winston said that in one instance, Cebu City Councilor Sylvan Jackosalem, an ally of Osmeña, asked him if he will run for mayor of Cebu City and that the city councilor wanted to be his running mate.
Pressed about any political plans, Winston said “I have big plans in my life. As a Cebuano, I feel the pain, the concerns and the inconvenience that Cebuanos, specifically our residents in the city, are experiencing because of the maladministration of the present administration.”
Winston said he wanted to “free the Cebuanos from this maladministration.”
He said the city is “dirty,” citing a poor garbage collection system and added that City
Hall employees are “demoralized.”
The only things thriving in the city are poker clubs and several subdivisions, he said.
“The City and the Province of Cebu should be something that we can be proud of—that can deliver basic services, able to put up the basic infrastructure projects,” he said.
“The city is on the verge of financial collapse and it will not be able to deliver even the basic essential services,” he said.
Winston described the South Road Properties as the “last monument of failure by Tomas Osmena’s administration in Cebu City.”
Meanwhile, Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama said he will opt to focus on his duties rather than talk about his political plans.
“I’d rather focus more on what I need to finish and complete, as well as what I need to start with respect to my presidency in the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines (VMLP),” said Rama.
However, Rama thanked Osmeña for announcing the administration party’s plans to field him and City education consultant Joy Augustus Young as the official candidates for the city’s top post in 2010.
He also reacted to opposition leader Jonathan Guardo’s earlier comment of the Rama-Joy tandem being “formidable, but not invincible”.
“We have not been asserting invincibility,” he told reporters.
He added that he would agree with the team-up as long as it was Osmeña’s desire to make Young his runningmate as he trusts Osmeña’s decision.
“If it is Tommy’s desire, hopefully it will be everybody’s (the party’s) desire,” he said.
Rama said that there are other qualified people in Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK).
Rama has yet to talk to Young about the team-up and their plans for the elections. (GMD/EPB)
