Mambaling has currently two barangay captains after the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK)-dominated Cebu City Council suspended the duly elected barangay chief, Gines Abellana, for two years for allegedly not releasing the honorariums of four barangay councilors from July to December 2018. Interestingly, the four barangay councilors are allied with the BOPK.
The councilor who got the highest number of votes in the last barangay elections in Mambaling was Anna Marie Palomo, one of the four whose honorariums Abellana withheld. That means she is allied with the BOPK. She eagerly assumed the post even as Abellana insisted that only the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) can remove him from office. She presided over a session of a faction of the barangay councilors allied with the BOPK.
Abellana refused to step down and has the support of the other barangay councilors who, like him, are allied with Barug Team Rama. Thus Mambaling has two barangay captains, each one claiming legitimacy to his or her hold to the post.
What is happening to the barangay proves the destructive effect of too much politicking not only by the barangay officials but also, by extension, Cebu City Government officials as both the mayor and the Cebu City councilors are seeking political advantage with the May elections no longer far away.
But the Mambaling case is actually only the latest instance wherein too much politicking has split the leadership in the country’s basic political unit. There are still many barangay captains who are not aligned with Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s BOPK but are supporters of Barug Team Rama. What Osmeña did was group the non-elected BOPK allies in the Barug-controlled barangays into the so-called barangay mayor’s office where assistance and services from the BOPK-held City Hall are funneled.
Meaning that Mambaling is not alone in being a barangay with split leadership--with the BOPK-controlled City Hall initiating the split instead of being a unifying force at the barangay level. Which is sad.