Monday, May 19, 2008 Vote for new blood in 2010: BO-PK critics
A YEAR after losing in the May 2007 elections, Cebu City opposition leaders are urging the people to vote for the “new blood” in 2010, and again offered themselves as alternative candidates.
“Cebu City is still deteriorating in terms of governance. What keeps (the city) afloat is the business community… and civil society,” said lawyer Raymond Garcia, son of former city mayor Alvin Garcia.
Raymond ran for Cebu City vice mayor in 2007, but lost to third-termer Michael Rama, whom Mayor Tomas Osmeña earlier said would be the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) mayoral bet in 2010.
Raymond, Lahug Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos, businessman and sports patron Jonathan Guardo and lawyer Aristotle Batuhan were guests in yesterday’s “Ang Lungsod ug ang Balaod” program of radio dyHP.
Leadership
Batuhan said the city has “stagnated in terms of leadership” and that new blood should be infused to sustain it.
Osmeña, Rama, and several BOPK-allied city councilors are already in their last terms.
Batuhan mentioned Isabela Governor Grace Padaca, who toppled the Dy political family and ended its 40-year reign, and Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio, a Catholic priest, as examples of leaders who are “not in the molds of traditional politicians.”
Tired of corruption, Panlilio temporarily left the priesthood to serve his province.
Batuhan said the City Government needs new expertise and new ideas at this time.
Lessons
He ran against incumbent Rep. Antonio Cuenco twice for the congressional seat in the south district but lost on both occasions. Cuenco is also on his last term.
Guardo lost to Cuenco in last year’s elections, when de los Santos squared off with Osmeña but got only 120,000 votes.
Guardo said that as neophyte candidates, he, Raymond, and de los Santos learned their lesson in their defeat.
While the 2007 polls was an uphill battle for them, he said 2010 will be different and will already be an even fight, warning the BOPK leaders that it will not be a walk in the park for them.
And while there are no candidates for the opposition yet, Guardo had said that he and de los Santos could run for mayor and vice mayor, respectively, if their partymates are agreeable to it.
On the other hand, de los Santos said that while people used to select candidates based on personalities and name recall, she believes that they are more mature now in
choosing their leaders.
Proof of this is the 120,000 votes she got in the last elections, she said.
“There are 120,000 who are ready for change, 120,000 people who are not afraid anymore…You cannot discount those people,” she said.
“Give people who have the skills and the heart a chance to serve you,” de los Santos added.
Debt
Raymond pointed out that the City is saddled with a P6-billion foreign debt incurred for the South Road Properties reclamation project, which he said has not earned a single centavo yet.
He also said that the City is now only the 20th most livable among all Philippine cities. During the term of his father, whom Osmeña defeated twice, Cebu City was the fourth most livable city and the seventh in Asia, he said.
De los Santos reminded the mayor of his pronouncement that Cebuanos should vote for those who are best qualified for the job.
The mayor even said that if that person is not winnable, they will campaign to make him popular.
“I will wait for 2010 and say it smack on his face…. I hope they will not be fielding wives and children in the election,” she said.
Osmeña’s wife, Margot, is rumored to be BOPK’s mayoral bet in 2010, and not Rama, a speculation that the mayor repeatedly denied. (RHM)
