TEAM RAMA: THE FIGHT CONTINUES

UNITED FRONT. Cebu City’s former mayor, Michael Rama, leads Team Rama councilors and barangay captains in a press conference on Sunday, March 26, 2017, to declare that they will continue to fiscalize the Osmeña administration despite losing Councilor Jerry Guardo to Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK).
CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO

Team Rama councilors in Cebu City are gearing to give the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) a fight, refusing to accept they are now in the minority even as one of them, Councilor Jerry Guardo, has joined the party headed by Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

The city’s former mayor and Team Rama leader, Michael Rama, said they have decided to “move on” from the unexpected departure of Guardo from their party, but they will not take sitting down any attempt of the Osmeña administration to railroad approval of measures that Team Rama has opposed, such as the move to rescind the city government’s sale of a 19.2-hectare South Road Properties (SRP) lot to Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI).

Rama, in a press conference yesterday, said that even if BO-PK councilors will be able to get the city council to approve the rescission of the FLI contract due to the added vote of Guardo, they have the option to bring it to court.

Rama maintained that the sale of the SRP lot to FLI, which was entered into during his term as mayor in 2015, was valid and that he is ready to go to court to prove it.

GUARDO

Although Osmeña and FLI agreed on the rescission of the contract last February, Team Rama councilors said it is a decision that cannot be done by the mayor alone since the contract was entered by the city government as a whole and would therefore require a council approval.

“I don’t have to dwell on whether Team Rama (will get the majority or not). We will always be ready to be there, to pronounce our advocacy on the rule of law,” said Rama, flanked by Team Rama councilors and 13 barangay captains allied to his group, during the press conference.

As to Guardo’s decision to join BO-PK, Rama said: “Move on na lang ta (Let’s just move on).”

Majority rules

Councilor James Anthony Cuenco, the current majority floor leader in the city council, insisted that Team Rama remains the majority bloc in the council since the two councilors who earlier bolted their party, Dave Tumulak and Hanz Abella, are still technically considered as independent councilors.

“The standing now is 8-7-2. This is why we’re asking the two (Tumulak and Abella), magklarohay ta (let’s be clear). It’s either black or white. I admire Jerry Guardo for being direct to the point. It’s difficult when you are being wishy-washy. But I maintain that Team Rama is still the majority,” Cuenco said during the press conference.

But Guardo’s transfer is now expected to tip the scale in favor of BO-PK even as Guardo’s former colleagues, like Councilor Joel Garganera, appealed to him to continue supporting the issues he backed when he was still with Team Rama.

“I just hope that what he stands for during the time when he was still with us… (when) we sided with the people, I hope that it does not change. I hope that just because he transferred to the other party, it’s not like changing clothes and having a different view just because he is there,” Garganera said. “I hope there is still some integrity on what he stood for.”

Among the issues that Team Rama backed are the closure of the Inayawan landfill and the need to reconvene the city’s mining board to address the unregulated quarrying in the city’s mountain villages. Team Rama also opposed the move to rescind the contracts of sale of SRP lots and criticized the mayor for running after SRP locators and of businesses identified with the SM group.

Councilor Margarita Osmeña, the mayor’s wife, earlier said they now have a 9-8 advantage over Team Rama. But a council reorganization will have to wait for three months since Guardo is still serving his three-month suspension, or until June.

By June, the BO-PK expects that the council will be able to approve the sale of another three hectares of the SRP lot at a floor price of P110,000 per square meter, among others. The proposed measure, authored by Abella, is still being reviewed by the committee on laws headed by Councilor Raymond Garcia of Team Rama.

‘Foolishness’

Mayor Osmeña has, meanwhile, declared that he will soon have the majority in the city council.

Osmeña

“In three months, I will have council majority. Which means in three months, we will no longer have foolishness like the ex-girlfriend of Mike Rama protecting drugs herself by reducing our anti-drug program to 1/10th its original budget. In three months, you will see the difference,” read the mayor’s Sunday post on his Facebook page.

He was referring to Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera, another Team Rama ally who heads the committee on budget and finance that used to be held by the mayor’s wife.

The mayor earlier proposed a P50 million budget for the city’s anti-drug campaign but only P5 million was appropriated by the city council.
Pesquera was quick to turn the blame on the mayor.

“Tomas has even utilized half the budget for the anti-drug program and there has been no substantial activity conducted by his administration. If he needs more budget, then he will just have to submit a supplemental budget. He should not make me as an excuse for his failure to curb the drug problem in the city,” Pesquera said in a statement.

Unfair

Rama, on the other hand, belied Guardo’s claim that Team Rama did not help the councilor handle the case that led to his suspension.

On March 17, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG-7) implemented Guardo’s three-month suspension, acting on the order of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas who found the councilor liable for failing to submit a yearly financial statement to the Commission on Audit (COA) during his time as barangay captain of Sambag 1.

Guardo said he left Team Rama because he did not get enough support from the group in dealing with his suspension. Also, the complaint that led to his suspension was filed by now Sambag 1 Barangay Captain Lemar Alcover, a Team Rama ally, he pointed out.

Rama said Guardo’s claim was a “blatant lie,” “unfounded and not fair” because their party appealed his suspension and sought to have him reinstated to his post. Cuenco backed Rama’s claim.

“I think it was all part of a grand plan. I was privy to what we did last Monday (March 20) after Guardo was suspended. He was in the law office of the vice mayor. The whole day we were working on his case. We appealed to the Ombudsman. We were fighting to have him reinstated,” Cuenco said.

Rama said he met with Guardo on March 22 but had no inkling that the latter was already deciding to bolt Team Rama.

Rama said his group is now trying to look on the positive side of things and has accepted the loss of Guardo.

He even joked that with Guardo out of Team Rama, they now have an open slot for a candidate for city councilor in the north district in the elections in 2019.