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CEBU CITY, Philippines – Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena said he did not care either way if Ronald Cuenco, son of Representative Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south district) would seek an elective city post in the 2010 elections.
“It's a free country,” Osmena said.
The mayor's concern, however, is if Ronald will be running on his own volition or if his father, who is not on good terms with the mayor, has pushed him to run.
Osmena hoped Ronald's situation would be the same as Councilor Richard Osmena, who ran not because he was the son of former vice mayor Renato Osmena, but because of his genuine intention to serve.
Ronald used to serve on the City Council for three terms before leaving for the United States on business.
Ronald was allied with the mayor during his time on the council. Should he run again, the arrangements may be different due to Osmena's widening rift with Cuenco.
The rift started before the October 2007 barangay (village) elections when Cuenco left for the US to seek medical treatment while Bando Osmena-Pundok Kauswagan's (BO-PK) candidates were campaigning.
Osmena said he saw Cuenco's move as a way of avoiding having to pay for campaign expenses, leaving the rest of BO-PK to help the candidates.
The mayor also saw Cuenco's one-month absence as an abandonment of the congressman's supporters in the barangays.
Cuenco, in an earlier interview, defended his actions in 2007, saying he already warned his barangay leaders that he had little to give in terms of finances.
Osmena has since said that he wants nothing to do with the congressman, describing Cuenco as “unreliable.” /Reporter Marian Z. Codilla
