Osmeña, Soon, ready to accept nomination
TWO initial choices to replace the seat to be vacated by Cebu City Councilor Hanz Abella at the City Council have expressed their willingness to accept the nomination.
Inayawan Barangay Captain Lutherlee “Lotlot” Ignacio-Soon and Renato “Junjun” Osmeña Jr. however said they will await the final decision of Barug Team Rama.
“I’m okay with it if they endorse me. I’m thankful that I’m being considered. But they have not talked to me yet. We will just wait for the group,” Ignacio-Soon told Cebu Daily News.
Osmeña also said that while he has heard that he’s being considered by the group, he also wants to wait for an official announcement.
But offhand, he said he is still interested in becoming a city councilor.
“If I were to be endorsed or even be considered, it would really be such an honor actually. The mere fact that I ran last election is because I want also to do my share in serving the city,” he told CDN.
Both Soon and Osmeña ran for city councilor in the south district under Team Rama during the May 2016 election but lost.
Of Barug Team Rama’s candidates in the south district, they were the only ones who didn’t make the cut. The Team Rama candidates who won are Councilors Abella, Dave Tumulak, James Anthony Cuenco, Jose Daluz III, Eduardo Rama Jr. and Jocelyn Pesquera.
However, Abella and Tumulak later bolted the party and joined Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).
At a press conference last Thursday, some Barug Team Rama councilors expressed their support to the idea of endorsing Soon and Osmeña to the Office of the President which will then decide which one of them would replace Abella.
Abella will be resigning as city councilor after being appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as Commissioner of the seventh division of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).
Soon said that she is willing to also resign as barangay captain of Inayawan if she ends up being appointed as city councilor.
“Anyway, I trust that our barangay will be in good hands since our first councilor is my father who also served as barangay captain before,” she said.If she resigns as barangay captain, her father Rustico Ignacio will succeed her.
Ignacio was barangay captain of Inayawan from 2007 to 2013.
On the other hand, Osmeña, son of former Cebu City vice mayor Renato Osmeña Sr. and brother of former city councilor Richard Osmeña who allied with Barug Team Rama in the previous administration, refused to speculate on the matter.
Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia earlier said he personally thinks the two are the best candidates since they ran in the elections and that there is a “semblance of public acceptability” considering they also received votes from the people during the election even if they lost.
Abella’s resignation from the Council would tip the advantage on numbers at the City Council back to Barug Team Rama, which will have nine councilors plus Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.
BO-PK will be left with only eight councilors.
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