Labella to 14th Cebu City Council: Pray for me 

CEBU CITY, Philippines—Cebu City Mayor-elect Edgardo Labella bid farewell to the Cebu City Council on its last regular session on Tuesday, June 25, 2019.

Labella has been presiding the City Council for two consecutive terms, which is a total of nine years, and will now be replaced by partymate, incoming Vice Mayor Michael Rama.

In his farewell speech, Labella acknowledged the hardwork of the council members in creating leagislations for the good of the people.

“As I am to leave this chamber to heed to a higher call, I am but eternally grateful to the Lord and to you my dear colleagues, for giving me this once in a lifetime opportunity to serve as the people’s voice in the Sanggunian,” said Labella in his speech.

Labella asked the council members to pray for him as he takes the top executive seat of the city starting July 1.

He urged the reelected councilors to also support his administration by keeping the democracy alive in the Council.

“Regardless of political situations, I hope and pray that we can work together to bring this City to greater heights,” said Labella.

In the last regular session of the 14th City Council, 16 out of 18 councilors were present. The two who were absent were councilors Jerry Guardo and David Tumulak.

Labella also awarded all three-termer councilors, including Councilors Margarita Osmeña, Alvin Arcilla, and Sisinio Andales.

Reelected Councilors Arcilla and Andales accepted the awards despite their appeal to the Commission on Election (Comelec) that they can run for another term because they were not able to finish their previous term from 2013-2016 due to a suspension.

Labella said the awards were given to the three-termers not the last-termer councilors and did not mean to insinuate the issue regarding their reelection.

Councilor Andales was also awarded as the Most Punctual councilor for being present in all the regular sessions in the last three years. /bmjo