Minnie Osmeña
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is considering another Cebuano for a Cabinet post.
But Ma. Victoria “Minnie” Osmeña, the socialite sister of incoming Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, is yet to accept Duterte’s offer to be the country’s next secretary of the Department of Tourism.
“She (Minnie) mentioned it (the offer) to Tommy a few weeks ago. She said she was offered (the post of Tourism secretary) and she was asking Tommy for advise,” said Cebu City Acting Mayor Margot Osmeña.
Minnie would not also say if she has accepted Duterte’s offer when interviewed by Cebu Daily News on Thursday afternoon.
However, she admitted in a text message to CDN that she had been traveling to Davao City to help in Duterte’s federalism campaign.
Minnie was also headed for Davao City when CDN called her late yesterday afternoon, the reason why she could not take a phone call from this paper.
Margot revealed that Minnie would often travel with her friend, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who is a strong proponent for the shift to a federal form of government.
Leoncio Evasco Jr., the outgoing mayor of Maribojoc town in Bohol and Duterte’s incoming Cabinet Secretary, told CDN in a phone interview that he was not privy to Duterte’s offer to Minnie Osmeña.
Tomas and his political group, the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) backed the presidential bid of administration candidate Mar Roxas, even as Tomas openly talked about his long-time friendship with Duterte and his decision to allow his allies in the city to back candidates other than Roxas.
Soon after the May 9 elections, Evasco came to Cebu to meet with Tomas, Margot and their son Miguel to personally thank the members of the Osmeña family for helping in Duterte’s election.
Talisay City Mayor-elect Eduardo Gullas, on the other hand, said he would still prefer outgoing fifth district Rep. Joseph “Ace” Durano to again be appointed as Tourism secretary, a post he held during the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Gullas, in a press conference Friday, said Durano, who is also a relative of the president-elect, proved his capabilities when he held the cabinet post in the Arroyo administration and would be able to do the same under the Duterte presidency.
Gullas said he was confident that Duterte would consider Durano for the post especially after he also picked Benjamin Diokno as his Budget secretary.
Diokno was secretary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) under former President Joseph Estrada.
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