Would Cebu City Acting Administrator
Briccio Boholst do better than
administrator-on-leave Albert Tan?
Brix might: >He had four-year experience managing Mandaue City Hall. >He survived a deadly ambush while in a car on Mactan bridge. He could cope with gun-less critics.
Last Sept. 18, 2026, Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival appointed Briccio Joseph Boholst as acting city administrator when City Administrator Albert Tan took a medical leave of absence.
Confused, people speculated
Silence over the “temporary” exit of Tan – whom Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña wanted replaced because of mediocre performance (“banga”) – led to confusion and speculation.
Was he terminated? Suspended? Did he resign?
No. He took a medical leave, though even that was obscured.
City Hall government media – massive as it is, compared to public information to that of other local government units except Cebu Capitol – has been oddly quiet about transition in a major office of the City Government.
“Whys” behind news blackout
Not inexplicable. Apparently Mayor Archival didn’t want to trumpet Tan’s leaving.
■ It was a movement that embarrassed Tan as it meant he couldn’t hack it: numerous problems at City Hall being laid at the door of OCA or Office of the City Administrator.
■ It would also stain the mayor’s record, as it tended to confirm VM Osmeña’s accusation that Archival made a poor and wrong choice of city manager.
■ Failing health provided means for Tan’s “graceful exit,” avoiding the instantly humiliating act of being suspended or terminated, or even resigning, given the huge cloud of doubt that Osmeña’s repeated blasts created.
■ It has also eased, for now, the friction between BOPK’s two top leaders: Archival, titular head as the sitting mayor, and Osmeña, party founder and chief. Once again, lower-ranked party member gives in, bends to the chief. Affirming what seems to be the fate of mayors from BOPK: >bow to or >stand up against Tomas Osmeña but leave.
Leak of news inevitable
The mayor leads and controls City Hall. But that can’t beat Tomas Osmeña’s influence over key officials and career personnel, built across seven terms in three separate stints .
But City Hall bureaucracy, as past exposes had shown, leaks like a sieve.
Public may not buy the ruse
It’s being viewed by some as Mayor Archival’s “temporary strategy” to appease and calm down VM Osmeña and save face for the mayor and appointee Tan.
People, however, may see through the ruse and call it for what it is.
Yet what actually matters -- and save the day for the players in the City Hall drama -- is whether the problems that bug City Hall because of Tan’s alleged “mediocre” leadership will go away.
And much of it will depend on Briccio Joseph Boholst, the supposed temp, substitute, the acting city administrator.
Who is Briccs/Brix Boholst?
What may help for Attorney Boholst is that the job is not new to him. It can even be said he had spent almost four years as Mandaue’s city administrator, covèring three years of the mayor’s first term and a part of the first year of his second term.
Experience in Mandaue City
Briccs’ experience in Mandaue City as its city administrator from July 2007 to March 2011 (or three years and seven months) must have instructed Attorney Boholst that the job requires more heavy lifting than some people think.
Under the Local Government Code, the city administrator as city manager is the “chief operations coordinator” behind the scenes.
As chief administrative and management officer, the city administrator sees to it that departments responsible for keeping City Hall delivering the various services to the public “work together seamlessly, efficiently and in accordance with the mayor’s directives.”
While Cebu City’s problems are larger and more complex than Mandaue City’s, Briccs’ baptism of fire in that metro city could help. He must know the mayor rolls out strategy and it’s the city administrator who oversees it all.
Briccs survived 2015 gun attack
Boholst first got full glare of news media spotlight when their car was ambushed on Aug. 13, 2015 on the Serging Osmena Jr. Bridge (the first Mactan-Mandaue bridge). Briccs’ law partner Atty. Amelie Ocanada-Alegre, 35, was killed. Briccs and law firm accountant Antonio Pino were shot and wounded but survived.
A twist in the ambush story was that the BMW sedan targeted in the shooting turned out to be registered in Boholst’s name. His explanation: He allowed his name to be used as legal shield to protect his partner’s assets during the fiercely fought marriage-annulment lawsuit between Alegre and her then husband.
City Hall watchers suggest that a city administrator who got through a hail of bullets and a legal controversy from it must be tough enough to cope with severe scrutiny and criticism in the territory of a city administrator and city legal officer.
Potential conflict of interest
Boholst’s dual role as city legal officer and city administrator hangs a potential conflict of interest over his head.
The City Legal Office is responsible for reviewing the legality of transactions made by various City Government departments, the same deals that as city administrator he also oversees.