EDITOR’S NOTE: This column was filed hours before the start of Tuesday's inaugural session of the City Council.F
QUICK LOOK
• May 12 elections produced a six-six-six (6-6-6) gridlock, in terms of votes, under which a majority can be secured only by defections or change of loyalties.
• Securing the majority in the 17th Sangguniang Panlungsod is crucial to BOPK whose leaders obtained the mayor’s and vice mayor’s seats in the May 12 election but with not enough seats to dominate the local legislature. BOPK plans
and thrusts during its term might be foiled or delayed by a hostile City Council.
• On the other hand, opposition Kusug and Barug could be oppressed by a BOPK majority that might ram down its program of government.An oppressive majority could allow only minimal checks and balances.
• There might be outright defections from Kusug and Barug to BOPK, which happened in City Councils previous to the present #17 City Council. Or each local party might keep its councilors but individual members might still forge temporary alliances for organization purposes in its July 8 session and vote in future sessions on issue-to-issue basis.
[1] KUSUG-BARUG PLAN ALREADY SIGNALED. Work to reshape alliances among the three local parties in the Cebu City Council apparently began early.
A BOPK leader was seen attending the inaugural or oath-taking of some neophyte councilors in Kusug and Barug. June 28, 2025, Kusug chief Raymond Alvin Garcia “hinted” of a “reunion” with Barug in the City Council. On July 4, Barug leader Mike Rama said they are “open” and are “not closing its doors” to an alliance with Kusug as long as it, ah, “advances public welfare.”
Dust of defeat must still taste bitter in the mouth as they recall that breakup of the two factions largely averted a third consecutive
BOPK loss.
[2] MORE LIKELY FOR A KUSUG-BARUG TEAMUP as the City Hall “empire” is largely controlled by BOPK. What occurred was a change of administrations. BOPK was out; Barug-Kusug was in. Now it’s upside down.
Both the Garcia and Rama groups have had a history of enmity with, if not open war against, BOPK. Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña was told by broadcaster Jason Monteclar in a June 27, 2025, interview that Tomas, the City Council’s presiding officer, will be facing some “friends” (meaning enemies, long-time and big-time) at the legislative sessions. VM Tomas’s comment: “Only once a week, not even the whole day.”
As opposed to the Kusug-Barug history of being together, which alliance won the alliance two elections preceding the last 2025 election.
[3] PROBLEM WOULD BE INDIVIDUAL DEFECTIONS. Some councilors under #17 City Council who belong to Kusug and Barug most likely have been poached on by BOPK and persuaded to defect to City Hall’s ruling party.
Or, short of a formal change of parties, “rogues could cooperate with” BOPK by voting with them to form a majority and, in the future, vote for
BOPK’s major legislation.
Technique in past defections was (a) to formally leave one’s party of origin and join the ruling party, or (b) to stay with the party under which the councilor was elected but may join with the ruling party on crucial votes, or (c) to proclaim oneself as independent to be freed of loyalty to the party of origin.
[4] BOPK’S EDGE OVER KUSUG, BARUG. A Kusug or Barug councilor might be tempted to change allegiance because of favors, political or personal, the BOPK mayor and his VM can grant the councilor.
The councilor who hopes of getting reelected usually relies on City Hall resources to help keep the support of voters. Decisions on actual allocation of resources are made by the mayor even though the councilors may have taken part in the appropriation of funds for them. A number of times then City Council minority leader, now Mayor, Nestor Archival Sr. griped about hundreds of resolutions and ordinances they passed and yet so few were actually implemented. Others lamented that their supporters were shut out from the distribution of aid from City Hall.
BOPK’s control of City Hall resources is complemented by leaders actually on the ground. Archival is at the mayor’s office and Osmeña is at the City Council office (with the title of vice mayor, which Tomas says, is his “license”). And where would Kusug and Barug leaders be? Outside City Hall, directing their party colleagues from a distance. Their lieutenants actually in the City Council are not yet publicly known.
[5] WHICH IS THE MAJORITY, WHICH THE MINORITY. The House rules for the #16 City Council, adopted by a resolution of July 3, 2024, shall apply unless discarded totally or partly amended by the new local legislature.
How the officers are elected under existing rules:
The officers to be elected are president pro-tempore, majority floor leader and first asst. and second asst. floor leaders, and minority floor leader and one asst. minority floor leader.
The presiding officer is, of course, the vice mayor, Tomas Osmeña, who doesn’t have to be elected.
The president pro-tempore is elected by “all the members present” while the three majority floor leaders are elected by “all the members of the majority party from among themselves” and the two minority floor leaders are elected by “all the members of the minority party from among themselves.”
During the election of the president pro-tempore, in which all members take part, the majority and minority are expected to emerge already. Or soon after, before the election of floor leaders, as only the majority members can vote for the three majority floor leaders and only the minority members can vote for the minority floor leader and the one minority asst. floor leader.
[5] WHAT IF THE MAJORITY WOULDN’T BE BOPK? It would be a kind of aberration as the City Council could have a president pro-tempore and a majority floor leader and two asst. floor leaders who belong to BOPK’s rival parties that constitute the majority.
VM Osmeña’s assistants in such a situation would be the minority floor leader and the asst. minority floor leader. We haven’t seen a provision in the house rules on determining the majority party and for a situation where the presiding officer’s party is not the majority.
[6] COMMITTEES: 28 PLUS. There are 28 standing committees under the existing house rules but the Sanggunian may create new committees -- standing, special or ad hoc -- if it will “enhance the performance of City Council functions.”
There are enough seats for everyone in the 18-member legislature: eight
from each of two city districts plus two ex-officio councilors, picked only by their respective groups -- ABC or Association of Barangay Councils and SK or Sangguniang Kabataan.
The committees are “constituted” by the City Council. which means the
majority that, given past practice, calls the shots on legislative decisions.
[7] PRESIDING OFFICER DOESN’T HAVE MUCH FAITH IN CITY COUNCIL.
Whichever majority will come up July 8 or in future sessions of the Sanggunian, VM Tomas Osmeña, its presiding officer publicly declared
lack of confidence in the city legislature. He doubts if it could improve the lives of Cebu City residents. Tomas, It would seem, looks at the Sanggunian as no better than the House of Representatives he served
for only one term (2010 to 2013), never to look back after he left to return to City Hall.