Nalzaro: Rama disappointed with Labella?

THE cat is now totally out of the bag, so to speak.

While Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama keeps on evading questions about his ongoing personal conflict with Mayor Edgardo Labella by saying their political relationship remains intact, the vice mayor’s public action speaks otherwise.

In several instances, Rama has been noticed not to hide his disappointment, displeasure and disagreement with the mayor, which triggered speculations of a possible political breakup.

Their conflict on matters surrounding the Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI) and the Cebu City Sinulog Governing Board has widened and is already unreconcilable.

Perhaps influenced by Rama, the SFI has announced that it will not accept cash donations from Cebu City Government. The SFI will not receive the P35 million budget allocated by the Office of the Mayor. This was brought up by Rama during the council’s hearing on the proposed 2020 annual budget.

Rama justified the move by saying that the SFI has not been receiving monetary assistance from the Cebu City Government since 2009 following the ruling of the Commission on Audit. But the truth of the matter is I found it as a form of sabotage on the part of the vice mayor who resigned as the SFI chairman.

Rama resented the creation of the governing board by Labella, ostensibly for “checks and balances.” But Rama has another interpretation of the principle of checks and balances, saying there is no such thing as “checks and balances” because there is nothing to be checked. Rama does not want to be controlled by the governing board.

Last Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, during the council’s regular session, Rama was overheard by some of his colleagues asking, “Why until now some of my allies were not yet employed at City Hall?” Before the start of the session, Rama was overheard apparently expressing his frustrations, saying “several months had passed since they assumed office but some of his political allies have not yet been hired by City Hall.” I am not sure if the statement was officially recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

If Mike is not disappointed by the way Labella is managing affairs at City Hall, why did he express these thoughts in front of his colleagues? Somebody recorded Rama’s words in his cellular phone. In fact, I have the copy of the recording.

Rama said: “Akong mga tawo sukad pa sa 1992 nako nagserbisyo, hangtod karon wala pa makabalik. Unsa man na? Kauban man kaha ang Rama ug Labella?” Maybe Mike wanted to hire his loyal supporters but because of his limited power, he cannot hire all of them. So he expressed his frustration with Labella’s way of management.

Earlier, the two officials also differed in their perspective on President Duterte’s road clearing operation order.

While Labella included sidewalk vendors in the clearing operation, Rama was against it. The latter said the President’s directive was only to clear the roads of obstruction and not include sidewalk vendors. Mike vowed to make representations to the President on the matter, sparing sidewalk vendors from the campaign. Sila mismo wala magkasinabot.

We can expect more conflict between the two in the near future that may be the source of their political animosities until they will end up facing each other in the 2022 elections. Believe me.

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