CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña will be leaving for the United States (US) this week to celebrate the holidays and undergo a medical checkup.

In a news conference, the mayor said that he and his wife, City Council majority floor leader Margarita Osmeña, along with their son, daughter-in-law and grandchild, will join the councilor’s relatives abroad for their Christmas celebration.

They will leave on Saturday and are expected to be back in the first week of January.

Before coming back to the Philippines, Mayor Osmeña said he will visit his medical specialist for his regular checkup.

“I have to undergo my regular checkup, which was long delayed. Before, my checkup was every three months, but now it’s already over 18 months. I have to check in by the 31st of Dec. until the first day of the year. I’ll be spending my New Year’s Eve inside the hospital,” he said.

The mayor was declared cancer-free by his doctors at the M.D. Andersons Cancer Center in Houston, Texas last August 2016.

The pronouncement came eight years after Osmeña was diagnosed with stage IV urinary bladder cancer. He has been having his regular medical checkup since 2009.

Osmeña has designated Vice Mayor Edgar Labella as acting mayor while he is abroad.

In a separate interview, Francisco Fernandez, executive assistant said the Office of the Mayor will send the letter of appointment to Labella’s office on Friday afternoon. (Trisha Oliveros, USC Intern)