CEBU CITY
The local opposition, Barug Team Rama – PDP Laban, will soon go under a new name.
Cebu City Councilors and opposition members Joel Garganera and Raymond Garcia announced yesterday that the group will be known simply as Barug – PDP Laban.
According to Garganera, it was former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama himself who suggested to remove the Rama name saying that party lists should not bear the names of any of it’s candidates.
“Mayor Mike says that we should do away with family names. That’s his idea. Barug, it represents the principle and the idea, and does not represent the particular family name,” explained Garganera.
The new name has yet to be approved by the Commission of Elections’ (Comelec) Central Office in Manila.
Meantime, the opposition will still use the name Barug Team Rama in their sorties, said Garcia.
Rama has purportedly been constantly following up the name change at Comelec.
“If he wanted Team Rama to remain, then he would have placed it as the registered party,” said Garcia.
Rama refused to confirm reports of his party’s name change saying that they will make a public announcement after filing their Certificates of Candidacy (COC).
“We will just come in, and we will make an official statement,” said Rama in a phone interview with Cebu Daily News.
Barug candidates are expected to file their COCs on the last day of
filing, Wednesday, October 17.
Neither Garganera nor Garcia, revealed their complete list of candidates for now except to say that Ernesto Herrera II, son of the late senator Ernesto Herrera and former Calape Bohol mayor, will be running as north district councilor under Barug.
Cebuano basketball star Dondon Hontiveros, will also run for councilor in the south district under the opposition party.
Barug-PDP Laban will field Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella for the mayoralty post to challenge the reelection bid of Mayor Tomas Osmeńa with Rama as Labella’s running mate for vice mayor.
According to Garcia, Labella now has the support of majority of PDP-Laban members in the city.
“I won’t say 100%, maybe 90% of them have paid their allegiance to Vice Mayor Labella,” said Garcia.
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