Tuesday, October 07, 2008 Tomas promises: I shall return
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday admitted his health condition is “serious,” but he felt “fine” and “perfectly okay.”
He also assured the Cebuanos that the City Government will be in good hands while he is away.
He will be back, he said, to continue serving his term as mayor until 2010.
“I feel fine. I feel perfectly okay. It’s just that they saw something, but it does not affect me mentally, physically, whatever…. Yeah, it’s serious. But we don’t know how serious. Maybe it’s nothing, maybe its something,” the mayor told reporters yesterday.
“(But) I don’t think I’m going to die before 2010. No way, I’m too stubborn for that. This is not the sort of thing that is immediate. It might be five years, maybe 10 years, might be 20 years,” the mayor added.
He is scheduled to leave tomorrow for the United States to ask for a second opinion on the mass in his urinary bladder that is reportedly cancerous.
He said he does not worry over his physical condition more than the stability of the City Government.
“What is important to me is the health of Cebu City….The city is under the same management. If I’m not here, it will run very well,” he said.
In his absence, Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who along with other City officials and department heads met with the mayor yesterday morning, will temporarily take the City’s reins.
Cebu City first lady Margot Osmeña the other day confirmed that her husband is suffering from a mass the size of a small egg in his bladder. Doctors found it during an
executive checkup over the weekend.
Margot said the mayor decided to go to the hospital last Friday for a series of medical exams after complaining of discomfort and seeing blood in his urine.
The mayor is said to have been suffering from the condition for about a month already.
Asked if biopsy result is already in, the mayor yesterday said he has yet to know it.
But, he said, he already has enough basis to immediately seek medical attention in the US.
Margot said they might stay in the US for a month or so.
Operation
“How long (will I be gone)? I don’ know. We will go by what we see…. I don’t know what the doctor will tell me. If it has to be radiation, I might stay longer (than one month). If it has to be operation, it might be shorter. If it’s tablets, I might be back in 48 hours. It all depends. I cannot (make a) guess at this point,” the mayor said.
He thanked the many people who expressed concern for him. His friends, he said, are the ones who are more worried than he is.
“My worry is, basically, concerning my wife and my son. I’m not worried about myself. My other worry is I have my commitment to the City and the SRP (South Road Properties),” the mayor said.
Told that Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south district), with whom he has refused to speak with after last year’s barangay elections, had wished him to get well soon, the mayor did not accept it at face value.
“It is politically correct for anybody to say that they’re concerned for your health—whether they’re sincere or not. Some people I believe, some people I don’t,” he said.
He refused to be dragged into an emotional discussion on his health condition, however, saying what is foremost in his mind is Margot and Miguel who is studying philosophy in the US.
“Let’s not talk about emotions here. Let’s not make my feelings an issue. What’s important is what’s happening to the City. But if you’ll ask me how I feel, I’ll simply say my concern is my wife and my son. What happens to me, I don’t care,” Osmeña said.
There are speculations that what the mayor is suffering could be cancer, but he and his family have not issued any statement to that effect.
In March 2002, the mayor collapsed during a hypertensive crisis that required an operation and two months’ rest. The last publicly-known confinement of the mayor was in
May last year, when he underwent a minor operation.
That was when his thigh got swollen as a result of punctures made during an angiogram. (RHM)
