THE race for the Cagayan de Oro’s office of the mayor in the May elections between incumbent Mayor Oscar Moreno and newbie in the political arena Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña is boring.
If you base it on public service record, Moreno is miles or even light years ahead of La Viña. Moreno has been in Misamis Oriental politics as a congressman, governor and now mayor from 1998 up to the present.
La Viña, well, this election will be his first attempt. His only political experience was being social media director of President Rodrigo Duterte during the 2016 presidential election.
He was awarded by Duterte with appointments in the Social Security System (SSS), Department of Tourism, and Department of Agriculture. He did not last long in those offices and eventually decided to file his candidacy last year.
The only advantage that La Viña has over Moreno is that the CDO Mayor has strings of corruption cases thrown at him by the opposition in various courts in the city. Some of these cases have already been resolved and are not favorable for the mayor. There are also cases filed just to disturb his candidacy.
But thanks to his brilliant legal team, Moreno has held on to power and is seeking for his last term as mayor of the City of Friendship.
La Viña though has no corruption cases but he is not also absolutely clean. According to the report of the Philippine Star, La Viña was named as SSS commissioner in November 2016, but Duterte did not renew his contract that expired on June 30, 2017. Duterte said that he did not renew La Viña’s contract because of his “abuse of public funds.”
Even though La Viña has the blessings of Duterte, I don’t think he could muster enough muscles to dislodge Moreno from the “iron throne” in the City Hall.
La Viña is not even a politician and as I have mentioned before this is his first time to run for office. In the wiki bio report, it is stated that Jose Gabriel “Pompee” M. La Viña is an entrepreneur, composer, record producer, social media strategist, and government official.
He is more of an artist rather than a politician. He is also a classical pianist. For sure he is also a decent singer. However, he is a brilliant composer having written songs for international Filipino artists like Lea Salonga, Chad Borja, Joey Albert, and many more.
I heard Moreno dished out some karaoke songs but I never heard La Viña sang. He must sound better than the Oro mayor.
Are there no better candidates for Oro mayor? There are two others Benjamin Tiu Contreras, and Felix Borres running for the office. But who are they? Only their moms know them.
I cannot vote for Moreno and La Viña and I will never vote for them. Because I am a registered voter of Gitagum, Misamis Oriental, the provincial residence of my wife.
But if I am an Oro resident. Whom would I vote for between the two gentlemen? I would rather hear them in a sing-off in front of the Welcome Home Foundation Inc. (WHFI) residents in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon. The singer who gets the most applause from the residents gets my vote. (l.biantan@gmail.com)