[] City Council should ask DILG to clarify although the department already has a standing policy on the issue, the latest being its legal opinion of August 1, 2025.
[] Or as VM Osmeña himself warned Councilor Mikel Rama and the rest of the City Council in its session this week, Tomas can challenge the rule in court.
[] The standing rule of DILG, citing SC ruling, is that a presiding officer in a local legislature doesn’t have “full rights of a councilor.” VM Tomas cannot relinquish his function – step down from chair -- to sponsor and debate on a resolution or ordinance. He cannot head a committee. DILG citing Supreme Court rulings, has explicitly said so.
THE HEADLINES SAID IT. SunStar’s headline over an April 22, 2026 story by Cherry Ann Virador: “Heated debate in Cebu City Council: Osmeña, Rama clash over rules.”
Headline over the April 23, 2026 story in The Freeman by Caecent Noot Magsumbol: “Rookie city councilor schools Tom on rules.”
(As a matter of newsroom practice, an editor, not the writer, writes the headline. When a news source complains about the heading, the reporter usually retorts: Not me!)
Both headlines are accurate although Freeman’s was naughty, going to the place where “rookie” Mikel Rama put one over Tomas Osmeña by tutoring the older adult.
IN A WAY, BOTH MIKEL, TOMAS ARE ROOKIES. The 2025-2028 term for Tomas and Mikel is a first not just for the son of former mayor Mike Rama but also for the vice mayor.
Tomas is multiple-termed as mayor (20 years over three separate periods, from 1988 to 2019). But this is his first term as VM. Osmeña can be deemed just as virginal as Mikel in their respective lines of public service.
A difference is that Atty. Mikel must have boned up on his job as member of the City Council while Tomas must not have on his being VM.
Obviously, during his stints as mayor and even in the last few months that he already started serving as vice mayor, Osmeña didn’t bother to learn the limits on the VM’s powers.
The “schooling” a newspaper said Mikel gave Tomas indicates that.
But then who among the councilors other than Kons Mikel knew about the DILG opinion, which cited the law and the Supreme Court on what the vice mayor cannot legally do?
OR THEY KNEW BUT DIDN’T AGREE. How could they have missed the jurisprudence, the law and standing policy of DILG, which oversees and guides LGUs or local government units?
The City Council secretariat (known through the past few years under different VMs as “super-efficient”) must have brought the DILG memo of August 2025 to the local legislature’s attention.
Unless the councilors “perused” (a favorite word to City Council members) the document but didn’t actually read and relate to it – and just ignored it.
Until that verbal exchange (or schooling, tutoring) last Tuesday between “rookie” Mikel and veteran Tomas.
Which showed the question may become a full-blown issue, if not now, in the coming sessions and both Tomas and Mikel would insist on their respective stand.
GAGGING THE VICE MAYOR. Tomas told Mikel: “Don’t tell me I have to keep my mouth shut because I will not keep it shut.”
No, the presiding officer is not barred from talking.
Yes, he is not allowed to debate on a question before the body. Tomas cannot debate with another member of the City Council. “Epitome of impartiality” the presiding officer must be.
Of course, the presiding officer when he rules as presiding officer, not as councilor.
DILG’s legal opinion of August 2025 bars the VM, or vice governor as the case may be, from arguing for or against a question before the legislature – even if he or she steps down to talk as a councilor.
TOMAS’S ‘LONG YEARS OF EXPERIENCE’ ENTITLED HIM TO SPEAK, the vice mayor told Mikel.
Right, but not as presiding officer or as councilor. The DILG opinion, citing the Local Government Code and Supreme Court rulings (especially Javier vs.Cadiao of Aug. 3, 2016), lays down and explains the rule.
GAG ON JUNJUN DAVIDE. When then Cebu vice governor Hilario Davide III was gagged by a provision in the Provincial Board Internal Rules of Procedure (with Gwen Garcia, on the rival team, as governor), Junjun didn’t publicly complain.
Not until after 100 days in office and he was asked about his accomplishments. “I was gagged,” he told the news media covering Capitol.
Meaning, Davide could not act totally as a board member. He couldn’t and didn’t exercise the full rights as a legislative member, as VM Tomas is under the law and jurisprudence.
Read: News+One, October 16, 2019: “Seares: Gagging the vice governor. PB rules can do it, did it.” August 5, 2025: “Seares: PB removes limits on vice guv as presiding officer”
WILL TOMAS STOP, CAN HE BE STOPPED? Cebu City’s vice mayor, however, seems he won’t be stopped from doing what he wants as presiding officer. City Council watchers want to see how it would play in future sessions.
A SIDE ISSUE THAT NEEDS TO BE RESOLVED is whether the City Council – and the Provincial Board – can go around the prohibition by providing in its Internal Rules of Procedure the right to step down as presiding officer and function as an ordinary councilor (or board member).
The DILG opinion, backed by the law and Supreme Court decisions. said that cannot be legally done.
In Tuesday’s City Council session, Councilor Jun Alcover said VM Tomas could step down and behave like a regular member. Apparently, he assumed that provision in the IRP is valid.
The local legislatures might eventually tackle that legal issue, given the imperative of harmonizing governance with the law and jurisprudence of the land.