Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Winston hits back at Mayor Osmeña
GOVERNMENT Service Insurance System (GSIS) President Winston Garcia lashed back at Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña over the weekend, saying he is “more Cebuano” than the mayor.
This Winston said after the mayor tagged him a “hypocrite” for residing in a city that the Garcias criticized as just the “20th most livable” among Philippine cities.
“I could be wrong, but I do not think Tomas was born in Cebu. He did not study college in Cebu, and he was nowhere to be found in Cebu during the difficult years of Martial law. He abandoned Cebu, then,” Winston told Sun.Star Cebu.
The Osmeñas went into exile in the US when former president Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law and staged a crackdown against his political enemies.
He left
The mayor’s brother, former senator Sergio Osmeña III got imprisoned and escaped with Eugenio Lopez, whose family owns television network ABS-CBN.
“So who is the hypocrite now? When he, Tomas Osmeña, left Cebu when times were hard, whereas I am sticking it out in Cebu even if the mayor has made the city now just the 20th most livable city,” Winston said.
Business magazine MoneySense this year ranked Cebu City as the 20th city in the list of “Best Places to Live,” with the cities of Bacolod, Makati, Davao, Marikina and Iloilo being named the top five.
The Philippine Human Development Report of the Human Development Network and the United Nations Development Programme and the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP) of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center were used as basis of the new list.
Raymond, Winston’s nephew, the other day said that when his father Alvin was mayor, Cebu City was fourth and then seventh most livable city in Asia.
Winston said that he was “more Cebuano” than Mayor Osmeña because he was born, studied in, and got married in Cebu City.
His children, he said, were baptized in Cebu City, and until his Manila assignment, he has always lived here.
Winston argued that he has every right to question the way Osmeña made a “mess” of Cebu City.
Winston also took exception to Osmeña’s statement that he cannot run for senator because he has many enemies, particularly those who lost their pensions when he took over as GSIS president and general manager.
Not running
“Why is he encouraging me to run for senator? I’m not running for any elective office, not for senator, not for anything,” he said.
He clarified that after doing some housekeeping, he only removed the pensions of those who are not entitled to them.
The mayor, on the other hand, gave “very little, if at all” to City Hall employees who are entitled to bonuses because City revenues were diverted to paying its huge foreign debt, he said. (RHM/From a report)
