[] Citing Mike Rama and Gwen Garcia, Tomas said Mayor-elect Archival might forget that public officials serve the people, not the other way. Mike and Gwen were "not like this" before they became mayor and governor, Tomas said. The transformation "could happen to Nestor."
WHAT HAPPENED. Wednesday, June 25, the Cebu City Council passed the city's revision of the zoning ordinance despite requests that it be deferred until the Carbon Market vendors are heard.
Ordinance #2784 was approved on third and final reading, dismaying Carbon vendors and other representatives of the urban poor who watched the session.
The protesters called it "a betrayal": Urban Poor Alliance head Francisco "Bimbo" Fernandez said the Carbon community didn't ask for disapproval of the ordinance. They merely asked for time to review the ordinance and present its opinion to the city legislature. Why a betrayal? Fernandez said Mayor-elect Nestor Archival Sr. promised them time to study the ordinance.
TOMAS CONCURRED. Tomas Osmeña, BOPK head and vice mayor-elect, said he agrees that BOPK, along with the City Council and Archival, indeed betrayed the urban poor. He counted himself in as a Judas, saying "I was not there."
To Osmeña, the betrayal could be more than failure to delay the ordinance's passage. Osmeña, in the interview with broadcaster Jason Monteclar, spoke broadly of fighting for the urban poor. Which must include their main objection to the ordinance: reclassification of Carbon Market from "institutional" to "commercial."
A change, the Carbon vendors fear, that would allow private developments like malls and hotels and change Carbon from its being "a heritage zone" and "market for the poor."
THE FIGHT. Tomas Osmeña said he'd fight for the vendors, saying he'd ask the people to help. "No ifs and buts about it," he said.
He didn't say how the people could help except, maybe, to increase public pressure by protests and requests.
Osmeña indicated, when asked by Monteclar, there could still be changes by amending the ordinance. For that, Tomas needs the assent of the City Council and the mayor.
URGENCY TO PASS IT. The councilors, led by Majority Floor Leader Jocelyn Pesquera, opted for the urgency of passage rather than the removal of any objectionable provision in the ordinance.
The ordinance would integrate the CLUP or Comprehensive Land Use Plan, passed in 2006, into the city's zoning ordinance. It would be feat not done in 19 years, which the outgoing City Council could do, hard to resist as legacy for the departing councilors like Pesquera. Anyway, as Councilor James Cuenco, who's also exiting, noted and incoming presiding officer Osmeña indicated, amendments could still be made.
HELP TOMAS WOULD NEED. While Osmeña will preside sessions at the next City Council and influence its agenda and thrust, he has to tap a majority bloc from the six-six-six distribution of councilors from three local parties elected last May: BOPK, Kusug and Barug.
Osmeña would also need the help of the mayor who after all approves or vetoes what the city legislature decides.
HOW WOULD THE FIGHT BE? Tomas doesn't see "amicable settlements," suggesting the issue could go to the courts, as the controversy over the sale of lots at South Road Properties did.
He, not the City, has been paying, he said, the cost of SRP litigation, which is now with the Supreme Court. A point that highlights the need for Osmeña to work hand in hand with the incoming mayor and City Council. Is Mayor-elect Archival "on board" with Tomas on the latter's fight? Monteclar asked the incoming vice mayor.
No, Osmeña said, "not necessarily." But Nestor and others don't have to be, Tomas said. "Archival is his own man," he said. And he regards the City Council as ineffective ("in improving the lives of people") shuffler of papers ("like a casino dealer").
[Related: Tomas Osmeña doesn't have much faith in Cebu City Council, News+One, June 26, 2025]
Tomas may have to revise his view of the City Council and his mayor. His fight for the urban poor starts in City Hall and if it goes to the courts, the judges won't be sympathetic with a cause that the city's chief executive and the City Council are not "on board with."
DOESN'T BELIEVE IN UNITY. Pushing for an administration's program would require a Mayor Archival to get the City Council in line, or his pet resolutions and ordinances would get stuck there.
Just as a VM Osmeña would need the dominant bloc in the City Council to go along with his agenda, specifically in the fight he has vowed to wage.
That would need unity for the city's progress and, quoting Tomas, "the city's future." He told Monteclar though he doesn't believe in unity, which only royalty, dictators, and the Pope espouse. Tomas said there's no unity in a democracy, which only has the elections, which sets off clash of ideas and fuels development.
Apparently, Tomas may be reminded that before the next elections in 2028 and officials who "betrayed" the urban poor could be sanctioned, things have to get done, unity would be needed, in the next three years – and that local governments, unlike kings, and dictators, cannot chop off dissenters' heads or have them shot.
RELYING ON COUNCILORS, NESTOR. "I don't even know if I can rely on the City Council. I don't even know if I can rely on Nestor."
Thus declared Tomas when asked about what he could do when he'd assume leadership of the city legislature.
Osmeña offered a theory about this "sickness" ("naay sakit") that afflicts some leaders who are transformed when they assume higher power. "Must be the kind of air... the lack of oxygen. up there," something that puts the idea in the head they are kings (or queens).
Among those he mentioned are two active politicians, former city mayor Mike Rama and outgoing Cebu governor Gwen Garcia. Mike, he said, was nine years councilor and nine years vice mayor and "he was not like this." "Gwen was not like this," he said.
It could happen to Nestor, Osmeña said. People go to Archival and feed him things that could make his head swirl, Tomas said.