CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is supporting five senatorial candidates in the May elections. Mar Roxas is not one of them. In fact, not one of the opposition’s Otso Diretso candidates got Osmeña’s backing.
The exclusion of Roxas is the more telling one, however. In 2016, Osmeña supported him for president. In 2013, Roxas picked Osmeña over then Mayor Michael Rama in the election for city mayor. Roxas and Osmeña both lost their races. Maybe, Osmeña believes that Roxas and he are a jinx to each other.
Osmeña can of course still add Roxas and others to his list. After all, there are 12 senatorial slots up for grabs in May and there are still five more weeks left before the elections are held.
But will he? Ever since President Duterte berated him publicly and threatened to slap him if their paths crossed, Osmeña has been very careful not to antagonize the President. He probably realizes that Duterte is so popular in Cebu City that courting the latter’s wrath would be a political kiss of death for him.
That he has chosen to support Bong Go speaks a lot about his desire to please Duterte. That’s political savvy for you. On the other hand, he risks alienating those who supported Roxas in 2016. He probably does not care, believing that they are too few to influence the results of the mayoralty election in Cebu City.
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It is probably true that businessman Douglas Labra wasn’t motivated by the noblest of intentions when he recently ratted on Osmeña. In addition, his excuse for the late confession on his and Osmeña’s involvement in the butane refilling business is a limp one. Eight months and he couldn’t find time to make a clean breast of it? Give me a break!
Nevertheless, the question should be asked, and here I use the past tense because Labra did not say if Osmeña is still into it: Did the mayor in fact engage in the butane refilling business himself or was he just a mere protector?
Nitpicking? In fact, the respective penalties for the two offenses greatly vary. Refilling is a criminal act under Presidential Decree 1865; protecting the business is not. He still faces administrative or criminal liability but under another law.
This is what the pertinent provisions of PD 1865, which I assume has not yet been repealed, say: a) Illegal trading in petroleum and/or petroleum products is “prohibited and penalized,” and b) Illegal trading is, among others, the sale or distribution of petroleum products or the refilling of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders without authority from the Bureau of Energy Utilization.
The penalty for illegal trading is a fine of not less than P20,000 but not more than P50,000 or imprisonment of at least two years but not more than five years or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
Even more significantly, “if the offender is a government official or employee, he shall be perpetually disqualified from office.”
So there, Mr. Labra: Is Mayor Osmeña a protector or owner/operator?