[] The title ‘Mayor of the Night’ is more than honorific as it involves overseeing and coordinating the work of various offices and agencies of the executive department.
[] The E.O. creates an office, the “24/7 Service (Mayor of the Night),” headed by the vice mayor.
MORE takeaways from the much-talked-about executive order, which Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival publicized November 12, 2025, creating the “Mayor of the Night” 24/7 services:
[1] AN OFFICE, NOT A MAYOR’S POSITION, IS CREATED by the executive order, which bears October 23, 2025 as date of signing and effectivity.
The E.O. names the office “Cebu City Government 24/7 Services Center,” describing it as a one-stop shop "where both local and national government agencies can provide selected services to the people.”
It may be located, the E.O. says, at a site “within or near” Cebu I.T. Park in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City. Another venue may be picked at another 24-hour commercial district, but the contract presented at the City Council already has a chosen office space at I.T. Park.
The site -- covered by a contract of lease for P12 million, over a period of three years -- was criticized as premature and “a waste” when presented to the City Council. Shouldn’t the Sanggunian have agreed first to the “Mayor of the Night” concept before approving the lease?
Seares: No such thing as 'mayor of the night' under the law or Constitution.
[2] ABSENT OR LATE REVIEW BY CITY COUNCIL. Councilor Pastor Alcover Jr. had raised two prongs of opposition: first, doubts over the constitutionality and legality of having two mayors; the second, the procedure in adopting the project.
Mayor Nes, long-time minority floor leader when he served as city councilor, must understand Kons Alcover’s sentiment. Then Kons Archival used to lament in the City Council over frequent instances when the mayor then would belatedly seek, at times even bypass, the local legislature when its review or approval was required.
The councilors -- one, Councilor Alcover, being the most vocal -- now fret over Mayor Archival’s action.
[3] DOWNSIDE IN SHUTTING OUT CITY COUNCIL. Full airing at the City Council could study and adopt measures to correct or improve the plan, such as avoiding “waste” or being more “practical.”
Like using instead the office space at City Hall, which becomes unoccupied after 5 p.m. Or limiting space rental at I.T. Park for few services such business permits and police clearances on specified nights. Or extending hours for certain offices, or sending special teams to identified workplaces of night-shift employees.
Maybe the City Council is just not reputed to do careful study. (How many corrective reversals did the Sanggunian under past mayors have to make?) Or the mayor and vice mayor are hard-pressed to carry out an election promise. Or they’re already tied to a lease set to start next January 1.
It will go through a “pilot” phase, for two years, not more than three years. They can do as much experiment as they can, to make up for the lack of study on actual kind and volume of needs the project is supposed to address.
[4] SEPARATION OF POWERS NOT VIOLATED, E.O. SAYS. Apparently addressing Kons Alcover’s attack on the constitutionality and legality of the “Mayor of the Night” project, the E.O. cites in Section 6: The vice mayor is designated “to oversee and coordinate” the offices and agencies under the “Mayor of the Night” project, “without necessarily undermining the principle of separation of powers as mandated by Republic Act 7160 (Local Government Code).”
How is that done? They must rely on the condition attached to the work of the “night mayor cum vice mayor heading the project: namely, “under the control and authority of the city mayor.” Printed in bold, which theoretically intensifies its force as a qualifier.
There is no Mayor Dos. The so-called “Mayor of the Night” is not another elected mayor but the vice mayor doing a mayor’s job of overseeing and coordinating selected government offices and agencies providing the services at night.
[5] MAYOR WITH TITLE QUALIFIER IS ALSO A MAYOR. Or so the opposition argues.
Critics like Kons Alcover would say there’s no other position in government bearing the title “mayor” except the vice mayor who’s not a mayor when he serves as vice mayor. Making the VM a mayor of sort while he keeps the title for which he was elected might only confuse people, including the two mayors, over who’s in charge.
There’s only one leader at the top. For performance and, yes, the accountability most everyone in government profess to value highly.
The only prescribed qualifier in government bureaucracy is “vice,” such as vice mayor, vice governor, vice president. The vice mayor doesn’t become mayor unless by succession. They don’t sit as mayors at the same time. Same rule with the other “vices” and their chief executives.
No deputy mayor, deputy governor or deputy president.
[6] THE ‘DEPUTY MAYORS’ EXPERIMENT. When Tomas Osmena was mayor, he designated a number of councilors as deputy mayors, performing functions in specific areas that were executive and outside their authority by the nature of the positions to which they were elected. Unfortunately, a complaint with the Ombudsman against then mayor Osmena and his deputy mayors was not resolved -- or it was but the ruling was not publicized.
It happened from 2016 to 2019 when Tomas Osmena was in his last term as city mayor. He had eight deputy mayors then.
It’s happening now in 2025 when Tomas, vice mayor and presiding officer of the City Council, is given some executive functions that entitle him to the appellation “mayor,” “Mayor of the Night.”
Each deputy mayor then handled a particular concern, such as health, public safety, infrastructures, etc. The present night mayor oversees and coordinates the agencies and offices that provide services round the clock.
Peter Alunan, commenting on News+One of November 13, asked, Why not have three mayors work in shifts, plus a reliever to give them a day-off? “We’d have the best city in the world!” Paul Villarete, a former city administrator, noted, with a straight face: “We can ask Congress to study the idea. That requires new legislation.”
About the present LGU system, with precepts aimed at public good, would harnessing councilors and the vice mayor with work outside their mandated functions not violate the Constitution, if not the law?
[7] MAYOR ARCHIVAL’S SAFEGUARDS include providing for (a) an experimental phase of two to three years and (b) a clip on the wings of the vice mayor serving as night mayor.
VM Tomas would have his 2025 election pledge fulfilled and people could justifiably call him “mayor,” instead of just “vice mayor.” He had been mayor for 20 years (three sets: 1987-1995; 2001 to 2010; 2016-2019). He might also have the satisfaction of achieving another public relations coup, like his “24/7 public library” idea. This time: first round-the-clock LGU service.
Thus, Mayor Nes obviously will please his vice mayor, his boss at BOPK. Yet at the same time, he has set a legal safeguard on the possibility of the city having two mayors, virtually if not actually. The other mayor, the night mayor, would be overseeing and coordinating the project, but under the elected mayor’s “authority and control.” Check out the E.O. again.
It’s there, yes, in bold print.