I DID say I would give the matter a rest.
I did.
In fact, I said that the clamping of two ambulances outside the Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital by personnel of the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) last month would be the last I talk about Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s “no-one-is-exempted-from-traffic-laws” edict.
And then I read that the CCTO was at it again.
This time, it clamped four vehicles of Barangay Mabolo early last Friday.
In fairness, on both occasions, the vehicles were illegally parked.
The barangay vehicles, which included garbage trucks, were parked at the back of the barangay hall.
CCTO operations chief Francisco Ouano was quick to point out that they also clamped 17 other illegally parked vehicles in the area.
So Mabolo Barangay Captain Prisca Niña Mabatid could not say that she, I mean, the barangay was being singled out.
But she did.
According to her, Osmeña’s war of attrition against her has begun.
Okay, not exactly in those words but she said that the clamping of the barangay vehicles was politically motivated.
Because the mayor is angry with her. Because she initially said that she felt betrayed by him for abandoning her during the campaign by endorsing her rival even though it was the mayor who urged her to run. Because she said that the Office of the President had asked her to run in the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) elections on July 30 and she was thinking about it. Because Tisa Barangay Captain and ABC president Philip Zafra announced that he would not seek reelection and Vice Edgardo Labella, head of PDP-Laban in Cebu City, said that the opposition would support her if she ran.
And Mabatid continues to say that she has yet to decide on the matter and then goes on to say, “Who am I to refuse the Office of the President nga mudagan (which asked me to run)?”
Of course, the mayor would have the last word, saying that should Mabatid win, if she finally decides to run, that is, she would not be able to enter his office.
“She has to get a court order for that. So if we are expected her to do a good job as ABC president, to get projects, well, not from City Hall,” Osmeña said.
And so let me go back to Mabatid saying that the clamping of the barangay vehicles was Osmeña running after her.
There may be a grain of truth in that.
Oh who am I kidding? We all know how the mayor can be with people who he thinks had slighted him. The guy is, after all, predictable.
We also know that he will not abandon an ally or a friend, even when that person was killed in what authorities said was a legitimate anti-drugs operation.
Which begs the question, when did the supposed friendship between Osmeña and Mabatid turn sour?
Or maybe the right question would be, why would Osmeña abandon someone he allegedly urged to run unless that person had done something that he didn’t like? And what was it?
Anyway, Mabatid did say that they would just settle the penalties so the barangay could use the vehicles again.
After all, the barangay vehicles were illegally parked.
Now, if only the CCTO could turn its attention to R. Landon....