Council shake-up

CAPILLAS

Unless there is a last minute dramatic shift in allegiance, the dominance of the Bando Osmena-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) in the just concluded barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections is expected to cause a short-lived shake-up in the Cebu City Council’s power balance.

Short-lived in the sense that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that barangay and SK elections only have two years left in their term before the next elections, no thanks to President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to suspend it as part of his administration’s cleansing of the ranks.

While the effects of this cleansing have yet to be seen, those two years may be enough for the Osmeña administration to impose whatever programs it has on its agenda, including perhaps the approval of that deal with the Gokongwei group for the development of the Kawit site in the South Road Properties (SRP).

But based on Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s recent statements, the Gokongwei group may have lost interest in pursuing the deal owing to the City Council opposition driven by the Barug Team Rama-PDP Laban bloc.

Will the results of the barangay and SK elections change their minds? It’s possible that the deal can be reworked but hopefully it won’t be at the expense of Cebu City’s interests of which Barug Team Rama officials insist they were protecting when they rejected the proposed deal.

I wonder if, left to their own devices, the opposition bloc can negotiate a better deal for the Kawit site with any developer than the joint venture agreement that they rejected after they came out with recommendations to amend the proposed contract?

Then again, their sponsors may have an idea or two on how to make a better deal but that’s another story. Which is why the barangay and SK elections results may make the council rejection short-lived.

Already, the opposition bloc plans to file charges against the mayor for supposedly resorting to black propaganda to influence voters into rejecting their allies.

Unless again, the Barug Team Rama bloc finds a sponsor to derail the joint venture deal further, or the joint venture deal is off for good, or the bloc somehow manages to influence enough barangay officials to re-elect incumbent Councilor Philip Zafra for the ABC post, the deal may push through.

For the opposition bloc to convince Cebu City residents of the validity of their arguments, they should produce evidence showing without a shadow of doubt that the proposed contract is highly anomalous and should be reviewed by the Commission on Audit (COA).

That’s the bigger challenge for them than producing investors willing to risk pouring money into the SRP and I doubt if any of them, on their own, have the expertise and connections to make that happen.