PEOPLE talk about...
* THAT BANK MANAGER WHO ALLEGEDLY PILFERED AT LEAST P50 MILLION from the accounts of a number of depositors in his bank, a savings bank in Cebu City.
How could that happen these days when controls, set up by the bank and Central Bank, are supposed to be much tighter than ever?
Recent cases of fraud have not been "inside jobs," are more sophisticated, and pulled by outsiders through hacking.
"What is the name of the bank?" has caused a bigger uproar than the question on how that kind of fraud could still happen.
Post-birthday bombshell
A day after his birthday Monday (October 28), when he turned 65, Vice Mayor Mike Rama announced he was "resigning" as chairman of the Sinulog Foundation Inc.
The tense he used in the announcement indicates the process was still going on and was not yet complete. He made it clear though that the decision was final and irrevocable. No, he didn't use those words-in-a-pair specifically. But Mike Rama quoted Julius Caesar as the Roman general crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.C., "The die is cast." What can sound more final than saying he had gone "past the point of no return," idiomatic meaning for the literal casting of dice as in shooting of craps?
Note however that it's only the Sinulog Foundation from which he is resigning. Surely, that doesn't include the position of vice mayor and that of City Council presiding officer (no, silly).
Realignment among councilors
What the public is interested to know is whether Mike Rama and his mayor Edgar Labella would still be political allies.
Who would leave Partido Barug, assuming that Mike had lost his personal franchise to the party when they agreed to drop "Rama" from the party name (it used to be "Team Rama")? Or would they stay under the same party but operating under separate factions?
And if they split politically, there could be a realignment of forces in the City Council. Who'd go with Mike and who'd stay with Edgar? BOPK councilors, under the baton of their leader operating from a Guadalupe subdivision, might seize the chance to share power with some of their adversaries in the last election.
How would City Hall look like and run, with pro-Labella and pro-Rama employees working in the same building?
Labella projects periled
Directly threatened would be the pet projects of Mayor Labella, particularly if Rama would merge forces with BOPK in the City Council.
A modus vivendi with Mike Rama, however, may enable a partnership before the elections in 2022. That partnership could be shaky and might not last long, especially if the two camps could not agree on (a) the sharing of the spoils available to the new administration and (b) deciding on major undertakings and sensitive issues in the city.
It lasted 120 days
If Mike's resignation from the Sinulog Foundation is in effect the breakup of the Labella-Rama alliance, the "marriage" lasted only 120 days, counting from June 30 when they assumed office as mayor and vice mayor until Oct. 28, Mike's birthday, when Rama started to cross his Rubicon.
To say the die was cast suggested that negotiations were made and they failed and the next phase would be the battle.
Unless a mediator could make them reconcile and settle differences, as they did when they decided to battle against Tomas Osmeña's entrenched party. Or unless Mike would explain the next day that he was merely being dramatic and he and Edgar are still buddies who, "together, could make things happen" for the city.
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