Monitoring Rama’s performance

As expected, former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña “thanked” his successor, Mayor Michael Rama, for crediting him with establishing the South Road Properties (SRP) with a tirade of his own.

In an interview over print and broadcast media, the former mayor and congressman took Rama to task for supposedly wasting the P4.2 billion that he supposedly left the city government’s coffers with at the time he left the city to Rama while he served in Congress in 2010.

Overall, he painted a dark picture of what a Rama administration will be in the event that he gets reelected to a third and last term in office in 2016. In a nutshell, Osmeña said Rama is a traditional politician who cares more about flash rather than substance, of short term rather than long term goals, of spending the fruits of the SRP sales in beautification and popular projects rather than concrete infrastructure and services.

“What he’s doing is in aid of reelection. When he leaves office, he would be like ‘bahala na kamo diha’ (you’re on your own),” Osmena said in a radio interview.

His accusations against Rama are typical of what political rivals throw against each other in the runup to the elections, and Osmeña can produce a laundry list of wrongdoings committed by the Rama administration that the public should study carefully when deciding whom to vote for next year.

The P4.2 billion Osmeña is said to have left in the city government’s coffers in 2010 may serve to further illustrate the cases he filed against City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas, whom he accused of juggling funds left and right based on the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA).

With the billions of pesos in windfall received by the city government for the initial payment of the lots at the South Road Properties (SRP), there’s still no word yet of what the Rama administration will do with the money.

But suffice it to say that city residents should quickly and assiduously monitor how the city government spends all that revenue from now on.

During the 2013 elections, Rama supposedly produced a list of projects his administration planned for the city in posters plastered in various visible points in the city and the names of the councilors who supposedly blocked them.

Would he do the same in the upcoming elections and post the projects he planned for implementation in the city now that he has the revenue in posters topped with his promotional motto, “Together we can make things happen”?

Since he’s still the mayor, Rama should be given the berth and time he needs to complete or launch the projects he lined up for the city, however vague and generalized they may be.

We understand that it is election season but Cebu City residents should see for themselves what solutions the mayor will do to address flooding, traffic and a host of other problems that don’t necessarily mean having to throw money at them and see if it made their lives better days and months from now.