A day after the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections took place, Cebu City Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera announced that the opposition Barug Team Rama party is planning to file criminal complaints against Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
In a press conference today, Pesquera said they will sue Osmeña for violation of the Omnibus Election Code of the Commission on Election (Comelec) for initiating a ‘black propaganda’ against incumbent barangay officials who belong to Team Rama.
She claimed that the mayor wrongly accused several barangay captains on his posters which insinuated the village chiefs of failing to submit liquidation reports of financial assistance granted to them by the Cebu City Government from 2009 to 2016.
“Example for Tisa, the subject of unliquidated financial assistance was from 2009 and 2010. At that time, Captain Phillip Zafra was not yet the captain. It was his own ally, Eduardo Cabulao, who will be facing this,” said Pesquera.
During the campaign period for the twin polls, Osmeña sued 58 barangay captains in Cebu City, all from Barug Team Rama, for allegedly failing to liquidate and return portion of the P800-million financial assistance the city government, then headed by former Cebu City Michael Rama, disallowed by the Commission on Audit (COA).