[] Councilors may want to see some proof that benefit will justify the project cost.
[] A Cebu journalist wrote on July 30, 2025, “It is like having a government that never sleeps.” New York City doesn’t sleep but its City Hall does.
[] Extended services may be given to night-shift employees but must it be 24/7, with an office complete with a night mayor? And won’t that diminish Archival’s power as mayor?
[1] ‘MAYOR OF THE NIGHT” PLAN. Last June 30. 2025, Cebu City Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he’d fulfill his promise made during the election campaign. He’d coordinate with national agencies like the NBI and the LTO, among others, to provide services to the night people, those who work during the graveyard shift.
The following day, July 1, 2025, the vice mayor and Mayor Nestor Archival Sr. launched the “Mayor of the Night” program with free bus rides for night-shift workers commuting to Cebu IT Park.
Tuesday, October 7, 2025, VM Tomas, a news report said, pushed for the approval of a P12.5 million, three-year lease for an office at the Cebu IT Park, which will serve as a one-stop shop for City Hall services and the night mayor’s office outside City Hall.
Call it a kerfuffle. One news outlet described it as a commotion. Set off mainly by the objection of Councilor Pastor Alcover Jr. who argued there’s already a duly elected mayor, Mayor Archival, and there’s no clear plan submitted to the City Council. In news media interviews, Alcover also assailed the plan as illegal and unconstitutional.
One may even wonder why the “Mayor of the Night” project reached the local legislature. In his June 30 interview, VM Tomas said his proposal didn’t have to pass the City Council. No need for an ordinance, he said then, probably forgetting that any spending of city government fund requires Sanggunian approval.
The other takeaways:
[2] INITIAL REACTIONS. When the plan was unwrapped during the 2025 election campaign, some City Hall watchers thought:
[] Use of the title “night mayor” -- definitely not found in the Local Government Code or the Constitution -- is merely nominal, with no real power of the mayor. It was viewed similarly as such titles as “Little Mayor” for the secretary in towns or city administrator in cities, or “Student Mayor” in observance of Youth Day.
[] It’s some kind of a jest, like “mayor-mayor” or “pretend-mayor.”
[] The position was conceived to appease VM Tomas’s alleged propensity to run the City himself or by surrogate or, in this instance, in a conveniently created nominal position.
[3] NOT UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT. The councilors, like many of their constituents cannot wrap their mind around having two mayors, in this case the elected mayor as Mayor One and the elected vice mayor as Mayor Two.
Archival is Day Mayor and Osmeña is Night Mayor? Not quite, because the law specifies only one mayor and the elected mayor surely would not be limited to daytime powers, which would transfer to another mayor, when dusk falls (“mayor sa kilom-kilom”).
Understanding the project would be the first step for the councilors before approving P12.5 million for office rent alone.
[4] GOING AROUND THE LAW. Councilor Alcover asked how a night mayor would be needed since “we already have a mayor who serves 24 hours a day,” referring to Mayor Archival who appears to be up and about, working as mayor, most of the time.
There are other more serious problems, such as defining the powers and functions of each as mayor, so as not to overlap or clash. When are they mayor-and-vice mayor to each other, only during day time, 8 to 12 and 1 to 5? How about weekends? A resident might have to decide whether to go to the day mayor or the night mayor.
The jesting though ceases when public funds are spent for a night mayor. The off-City Hall office has to be called an extension office of VM Tomas, not an office of a second mayor. Spending for a second mayor is obviously unauthorized under the law.
[5] IS THERE ACTUAL NEED FOR A MAYOR-LED ONE-STOP SHOP? It must be clear to the public that the night mayor project came to being principally because of VM Tomas’s concern and affection for BPO (business process outsourcing) employees, which, one source said number into “tens of thousands” working for more than 200 call center firms. Night workers in other industries though are also reportedly covered.
Councilor Alcover said it would be a “waste of money,” without showing how. VM Tomas though also didn’t present a study of his plan, which must show how many are expected to use services of City Hall and some national agencies at night and how often during the year.
Could these extension services not be done on certain nights of the week, in coordination with managers of BPO firms, not necessarily 24/7? And must the one-stop shop be located at a P4 million-plus-a-year rental; why not at City Hall which would be empty during night time, with the vice mayor’s office as the night mayor’s office?
[6] WOULD VM OSMEÑA HAVE HIS WAY? While the Kusug-Barug informal alliance dominates the City Council -- and Jun Alcover belongs to it, not Osmena’s BOPK -- it is not certain how most of the councilors will vote on the issue. Some members of the majority had earlier said they’d vote “issue per issue,” depending on what serves public welfare.
It would be interesting to watch if the majority would go for the Osmena pet plan -- and whether Mayor Archival would lobby strongly for its approval.
[7] TALK ON ‘NIGHT MAYOR’ ISSUE always includes a “common suspicion, if not belief” about an alleged Tomas Osmeña trait: to run the City his way. The mayor could be someone else -- in the 2025-2028 term, it is Archival -- but Tomas, even as vice mayor, would push and shove what he must think is right for Cebu City.
A news reporter who asked him at a presscon something related to that was dismissed with, “None of your business.”
Yet there, here are some projects that VM Tomas has already been talking and doing something about, such as disaster preparedness and response, fee shuttle service, and benefits for single parents. He may see them succeed, not as vice mayor, but as night mayor.