“I remain an ally of the Labella administration. It is not my nature to sever a good relationship. Never my cup of tea to sever a relationship. That all depends on the people who are not comfortable with me. That’s their ball game.”---Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama, in resigning as chairman of the Sinulog Foundation Inc., Oct. 29, 2019

On leaving the Sinulog Foundation Inc., which manages the annual Sinulog cultural activities, Cebu City Vice Mayor Mike Rama made it known that he:

[1] Only resigned as chairman, not as director.

[2] Will still remain as vice mayor and presiding officer of the City Council.

[3] Will still be “an ally of the Labella administration.”

In other words, there is yet no parting of political ways. They may even still be friends, with Mike being able to sing at a social function “The Way You Look Tonight” and address the song to Edgar and mean it.

Anticipating the worst

City Hall watchers, whose vision already reaches the next election season, predict the worst for the joint forces that toppled the Tomas Osmeña rule in the city in last May’s elections.

That alliance is decidedly more shaky now than in the first 100 days of the Labella-Rama administration. Those skeptics may be faulted for foreseeing an eventual breakup, preceded by clash of views on major policies and shift of allegiances among Partido Barug councilors and other leaders. Yet, the same political observers were the ones who spotted early the red flags and beat the warning drums for the present turn of events.

If we’re to believe Mike’s view on relationships, he doesn’t dump girl friends; the g.f. dumps him. But surely politics runs on grooves different from those of a sexual relationship. The difference is you’re still screwed even if you pretend to be political buddies.

Matter of conflict of interest

Mike will remain VM. And as Sanggunian presiding officer, he indicated in his parting shot, he has influence in the City Council that approves the Sinulog budget. Thus, the conflict of interest that arises when the vice mayor sits as Sinulog Foundation chairman—or even in Rama’s case now, as director—is starkly demonstrated.

Is the Sinulog Foundation not a private foundation? Aren’t Vice Mayor Rama, who still sits as Sinulog Foundation director, and Mayor Labella, who heads the Sinulog’s governing board, not caught in some conflict-of-interest quagmire, which eventually might be questioned in the ombudsman or ant-graft court?

That digresses although the two officials and their respective Sinulog boards should grapple soon with the legal and moral question involved in their Sinulog roles, since the foundation is deemed a private entity.

Effect on programs

Worriers may focus more on what would happen if Labella and Rama would tangle on key programs, a feud that could start with skirmishes on sharing of City Hall perks that an administration routinely dispenses among its supporters.

Indications of that already erupted with the quarrel over the recent handling of a promotional activity between a department head’s wife and a woman councilor. It could be more polarized, with each faction sporting a Labella or Rama label.

The expected Barug vs. BOPK tug-of-war could morph into a Barug Labella vs. Barug Rama intramural with Osmena’s councilors watching how the administration party would waste the few precious years of its term on wrangling and squabbling, instead of tackling the city’s huge problems.