NOBODY likes a good guy. At least, not in politics, anyway.
Which is why, sad to say and I hate to admit it, Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella may not succeed in grabbing the city’s highest elective seat from incumbent Mayor Tomas Osmeña in the midterm elections next month.
From what I’ve heard or read about the former Office of Ombudsman-Visayas director, his record is clean save for that six-month suspension in 2016 along with then mayor Michael Rama and 12 councilors for “abuse of authority” because, get this, they approved the release of P20,000 in calamity assistance to City Hall officials and employees in 2013 after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda struck Cebu.
Other than that, Labella is relatively quite boring.
And I don’t mean that in a bad way. But for a politician, it can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Labella could try to milk his 32-hour ordeal at sea after mv Princess of the Orient sank off the coast of Cavite in 1998, but that was over a decade ago. And I doubt he would. I don’t think he’s that type of guy. Not that I know him because I don’t. Not personally.
Anyway, voters probably don’t even remember that Labella saved a baby from drowning or that he resorted to eating seaweed and garbage floating around him to survive. Apparently, both acts were instinctive. I’m sure pogi points were not at the back of his mind when he risked his life for the child. But that’s Labella.
And he has a formidable foe in May. Much more dangerous than the sharks that swam in the deep while he drifted in pitch darkness. But the former government prosecutor and city councilor remained buoyed by his faith.
“I think I can offer to the city’s constituents a kind of governance that is accountable, consultative and ready to listen to the gripes and grievances of even the most ordinary man,” Labella said last July.
I’m sure he can. But that may not be enough to counter what his foe told supporters last Saturday, March 30, about continuing his family’s brand of service.
“Atong ipadayon. Simbako nay mahitabo nako, naa ta’y agi. Ang kinahanglan sa syudad, management, dili storya,” Osmena said during his group’s campaign kickoff at the Cebu City Sports Center.
God forbid should anything happen to the mayor between now and election day. But where did that come from anyway?
That certainly caught me by surprise. Although, maybe it shouldn’t. After all, what could you expect from someone who basically admitted being a traditional politician?
Still, it did trump Labella’s rhetoric about endeavoring “to have a healing and conciliatory mayorship for the best interest of the city” speech.
Come on. Admit it.