‘Soul searching’ prods Rama to run for vice mayor instead

Partymates surprised, Labella ‘humbled’ by Rama’s sacrifice

After a week of soul searching and contemplation, former Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama announced on Thursday that he will be running as vice mayor only under his United Barug Team Rama party in next year’s midterm elections.

Although Rama’s announcement to slide down to the second highest position behind incumbent Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgar Labella surprised some partymates, they were quick to throw their support behind their leader.

In a phone interview with Cebu Daily News, Rama, who earlier announced that he will be running as mayor against his political rival, incumbent Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, said it took him one week of soul searching to come up with the decision.

And the biggest reason why he made the sacrifice, Rama said, is their group’s ultimate goal which is to reclaim City Hall.

“I’ve been going around the barangays, and then of course they told me they are worried about who’s going to run as mayor. And I considered all circumstances,” Rama said.

Rama, who is the founder of Barug, said sacrifices had to be made to achieve their dream of wresting City Hall from Osmeña.

“I was out of town all week as I sought discernment from the Almighty. But our mission here is to retake City Hall,” he added.

Humbled and honored

Labella, for his part, said he is ‘humbled and honored’ by Rama’s gesture.

“Mayor Mike told me of his decision, and I am humbled with his declaration, especially for making the sacrifice on being the group’s vice mayor,” he said in a separate phone interview.

A few months back, both Rama and Labella announced that they are vying for the mayoralty post in the May 2019 midterm elections, which is nine months away.

Surprised

In a press conference yesterday, Councilor Joel Garganera of Barug said the news on Rama’s decision to run as their group’s vice mayor surprised him.

“We were surprised about Mayor Mike running as the vice mayor but we know that there should only be one candidate as mayor in the group,” said Garganera.

Even if other members of Barug were not yet notified of their leader’s decision to run as vice mayor instead of mayor, some of them expressed support and confidence on the tandem.

For his part, Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia said a Labella-Rama tandem is going to be formidable.

“I am very happy that that is the development. It’s a welcome development for the party,” Garcia said.

The Commission on Elections has set October as the deadline for the filing of the certificate of candidacy (COC) for those running in the May 2019 polls.