RECENTLY elected or reelected government officials in Cebu are set to formally assume their posts on Monday, July 1, 2019, but one of them may have to hold fort in another office for a while. Cebu City mayor-elect Edgardo Labella can’t as yet take over the room on the eighth floor of the executive building vacated by his predecessor, Tomas Osmeña, because the latter made sure it would be bare before the takeover. The Cebuano word “gihimulbolan” is even a mild term for what he did.
According to reports, Osmeña took away office fixtures and furniture and even the glass dividers of the office and had the tiles, including those in the kitchen and washroom, peeled off. The outgoing mayor’s executive assistant, Bimbo Fernandez, said Osmeña owns the fixtures and furniture in the office and spent P2 million in personal funds for the room’s renovation.
And here’s the catch. Osmeña supposedly spent his personal money for the fixtures and furniture and the renovation because the then opposition-dominated City Council denied his request for a budget for it. Labella was a long-time member of the City Council before he ran and won against Osmeña. The hurt in Osmena’s action thus showed.
What Osmeña has done, though, is not totally unprecedented. In 2013, when the then outgoing governor Gwendolyn Garcia vacated the office she used for nine years in favor of the then incoming governor Hilario Davide III, she brought with her some personal stuff, including the main door and inner doors that were made of hardwood and a 10-foot long dining table made of narra. The doors and the table were owned by her family and had, for her, sentimental value.
Garcia was criticized then because what she did wasn’t done before during turnover of offices. But Davide understood that action, which obviously wasn’t accompanied by hurt or revenge. Which was what made Gwen’s action different from that of Osmeña. By the way, Garcia is back in Capitol’s helm after winning the gubernatorial race in the May polls.
Labella is reportedly mulling over the idea of filing a case against Osmeña. That is within his right and should be an apt sendoff for Osmeña. But this, hopefully, is his final vindictive act in his long stint as Cebu City mayor. I say it is fitting that Osmeña would go out like this because we may never see governance like his in a while. That act reminds us of what many have long wanted to do away with in City Hall: vindictiveness.
Which reminds me of the call I got days ago from a former colleague who is now based in the United States. He is an Osmeña supporter, and he asked me who won for Cebu City mayor. I told him it was Labella, and I could hear the word, “Damn,” from the other end. Then he told me it must be because Osmeña is “hingaway kaayo (quarrelsome).”
We don’t know how Labella will run City Hall, but we can be sure it won’t be anything like how Osmeña did it. That can be predicted because of the difference in personality. Osmeña can be brilliant, but he brought with him in his stint the baggage that is his harsh personality.