In my column last week, I wrote about an unofficial poll survey allegedly commissioned by a politician whose influence extends beyond Cebu City. This survey purportedly showed suspended Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama leading the pack of mayoralty candidates for next year’s midterm polls.
In that survey, Cebu City North District Councilor Nestor Archival reportedly trails Rama by about three percent, while the rest of the mayoralty aspirants — including former city councilor and Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) chairman Joey Daluz, Acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia and Yogi Ruiz — lag far behind Rama.
Dr. Joseph Elvir Tubilan, a fellow cooperator and former editor of Superbalita, has informed me that Mayor Rama remains the frontrunner in Cebu City’s mayoralty race. He also mentioned that, according to the Santa Cruz barangay captain, Ruiz will not pursue his mayoral ambitions. Instead, Ruiz reportedly plans to run under a party-list, though the specific party-list was not mentioned.
There’s an intriguing twist to the information I received regarding who allegedly urged Ruiz and Daluz to run for mayor. This could be a political intrigue or a strategy to divide Rama’s supporters. Without naming names, a political leader was said to have encouraged Daluz to enter the mayoral race.
Is Daluz taking the bait? I believe so, as I observed several large posters of Daluz in the mountain barangays of Cebu City on Monday morning. We passed by these areas on our way home from Bacolod City after participating in the BBMI golf tournament over the weekend, traveling via San Carlos City to Toledo City, Balamban and the Trans-Central Highway.
Ruiz, after aggressively promoting himself through large posters and speaking engagements, portraying himself as the man with the heart and mind to serve Cebu City, has suddenly gone quiet. He is reportedly settling for a party-list representative position, perhaps due to his poor showing in the poll survey.
Councilor Archival, nominated by former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña, is the standard-bearer of their party, Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), as its mayoralty candidate. Archival’s nomination was formally announced weeks ago by BOPK chair Tomas himself.
To address doubts about his leadership capabilities, Archival stated during his formal nomination that he would not be a “puppet” of former Mayor Tomas, who would be his running mate for vice mayor.
Given this current political landscape, where does Acting Mayor Garcia stand? Will he still run for mayor despite his poor showing in the unofficial poll survey? If he opts to run for a second term as vice mayor, who would be his running mate for mayor?
Rama has not yet announced his running mate for vice mayor in next year’s elections. Is it safe to assume that despite their differences in opinion and management style, Rama and Garcia could still be party mates and work together as a team?
Some suggest that Rama and Garcia are still the team to bet on in next year’s polls, especially if Daluz were to regroup with them.
Recently, Rama has made overtures to Daluz, suggesting they reunite as they did in the last elections. This comes even after Rama had seemingly moved heaven and earth to unseat Daluz as chair of MCWD over personal or political differences. Will this reconciliation happen? Let’s wait and see. As they say, there are no permanent friends or enemies in our brand of politics.