VICE Mayor-elect Osmeña, leader of Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), said the Cebu City Council’s approval of the revised Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, was an act of betrayal of the councilors and Mayor-elect Nestor Archival, signifying a possible rift between the incoming leaders.
“The council betrayed them. They all betrayed them. Nestor betrayed them, and I betrayed them. I wasn’t there,” he said in an interview with broadcaster Jason Monteclar streamed on Facebook Thursday, June 26.
The dispute stems from the council’s unanimous approval of the revised zoning ordinance, a critical component of the city’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (Clup).
Last Thursday, Archival, Osmeña and BOPK councilors-elect took their oath of office. A Facebook post from the former Cebu City Public Information Office page, “Cebu Updates,” noted the absence of interaction between the two officials during the event.
City Hall reporters asked Archival about his relationship with Osmeña in a phone interview on Friday, June 27. Archival denied any betrayal and expressed a desire to speak with his running mate.
“Wala pa mi magkastorya ana (We haven’t talked about it yet), and I want to talk to him,” Archival said, explaining the urgency to pass the ordinance.
“The Clup has been pending for 29 years. We needed the zoning ordinance as the vehicle to implement it,” he added.
The mayor-elect, an outgoing councilor, did not participate in the vote for the revised zoning ordinance. He left before the council unanimously voted for the measure.
Archival said he left the session hall before the final vote because he preferred not to interfere with what he called “a landmark ordinance.” He added that an oversight committee could review any issues.
“Alienation”
In his interview with Monteclar, Osmeña said he was distancing himself from the party to honor his commitment to help marginalized communities.
“I will alienate myself from BOPK because I promised to help the urban poor,” he added.
Osmeña, a long-time leader of BOPK, said the council’s action was a betrayal of the Carbon Market vendors and the city’s urban poor. He shared the sentiments of Francisco “Bimbo” Fernandez, head of the Urban Poor Alliance and a long-time BOPK ally, who earlier criticized the ordinance.
“Bimbo is not the urban poor, but he is right. BOPK betrayed the urban poor,” Osmeña said in an interview with Cebuano content creator.
Osmeña strongly suggested corruption influenced the vote. He claimed the land use plan was a “justification to legalize Megaworld” and that “money changed hands.” Cebu2World, a subsidiary of Megawide Construction Corp., is involved in the redevelopment and management of the Carbon Market. This project, known as the Carbon Market redevelopment.
“Our biggest crooks are not the drug users. It’s the billionaires. They take our future,” Osmeña stated.
He added that while Carbon Market had already been classified as a commercial zone since the 1996 ordinance, vendors had long requested to revert its classification to institutional to preserve its public character.
Osmeña admitted that he, along Archival and other BOPK councilors (Joy Augustus Young, Jose Abellanosa and Mary Ann de los Santos), failed the vendors by not being present to oppose the ordinance.
Carbon Market vendors and urban poor groups feel abandoned. They had signed a covenant with Osmeña and Archival just two weeks earlier to protect the Carbon Market and public spaces.
For Osmeña, the fight is not over.
“They’ll throw all kinds of legal complications,” he said. “But I’ll make it simple — I will ask the people to fight for it.” / JPS