SUSPENDED Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is not happy that his name was dragged into the resignation of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia from the Partido ng Demokratiko-Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, May 29, Rama, who is the party’s vice president for the Visayas, said Garcia’s resignation was “simply not truthful.”
He said her loyalty to the party was long gone before their conflict over the implementation of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (CBRT) project started.
He said Garcia has no “steady political compass” and never had “any record of having steady political principles.”
“I was shocked to see the resignation letter of a person I highly doubt fits the title honorable,” Rama said.
“True or what, I heard that it was a day after Malacañang ordered her to submit an answer to the administrative complaint regarding her interference in the affairs of Cebu City, she had the temerity of resigning as a member of PDP but not without using my name in vain,” he said on his post.
Garcia, in a letter dated Tuesday, May 28, 2024, cited the complaint filed by Rama with the Office of the President as having created an “irreconcilable conflict.”
She said her continued association with the party was “untenable.”
Rama filed the complaint over Garcia’s February memorandum issuing a cease and desist order against the construction of a bus station in front of the Capitol building along Osmeña Blvd., which is part of the first package of the CBRT project, citing possible heritage violation.
“She has no business with Cebu City affairs and should just stay out of it. Pagkatoytoy ning gobernadora,” Rama said.
The suspended mayor also defended anew his vision for Cebu City to be “Singapore like with Melbourne features,” saying both cities ranked 42 and nine, respectively, in the global ranking and he was not wrong in using them as benchmarks.
“Anyway, there is a reason why Manila and Cebu City are included in global rankings. No other city in these islands,” he said.
Sought for her reaction to Rama’s allegations, the governor refused to comment.
Rama is serving a six-month preventive suspension order along with seven other city officials over the reassignment and the non-payment of salaries of four regular employees assigned at the City Assessor’s Office.
His vice mayor, Raymond Alvin Garcia, is acting mayor in his absence.
Raymond is the governor’s nephew. / EHP