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Rep. Antonio “Tony” Cuenco (Cebu City south district) will run for mayor under the opposition party, according to opposition leader Jonathan Guardo.
Guardo yesterday said that Cuenco agreed to be the opposition party’s standard bearer in the next election, completing the opposition’s “final four” contenders for Cebu City’s top posts.
Guardo said that the opposition met last Friday to form “TAMA,” standing for Tony Cuenco, former city mayor Alvin Garcia for vice mayor, Lahug barangay captain Mary Ann de los Santos for north district representative and Atan Guardo for south district representative.
Guardo said the opposition’s slogan would be “TAMA na. Pag Mata na.”
Guardo said the opposition got Cuenco’s nod to run for mayor last Friday.
“Cuenco has the support of all captains in the south and north barangay captains (who) don’t like Mike (Vice Mayor Michael Rama). I foresee a break up of BO-PK (Bando Osmena – Pundok Kauswagan),” Guardo said.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña brushed off Guardo’s statement, saying BO-PK had most of the barangay captains’ support.
“(The opposition) have most of the barangay captains... in (the town of) Barili,” the mayor said.
The mayor’s endorsement of Vice Mayor Rama for mayor under BO-PK was questioned and challenged by majority of the barangay captains in the city.
They issued manifestos endorsing either Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City north) or first lady Margot Osmeña for the mayoralty and asking Rama to run for south district congressman instead.
The mayor set the manifestos aside and reiterated his support to Rama.
Rama said he would not comment on Cuenco running under the opposition until Cuenco himself makes the announcement.
“We’ll wait for that announcement. The opposition always says they’ve finalized their lineup, they’ve done that before,” Rama said.
Calls to Cuenco’s mobile phone yesterday did not get through.
Cuenco earlier said that he was “seriously meditating” the opposition’s offer.
Cuenco was a former member of BO-PK, but had a falling out with Osmeña, BO-PK’s leader.
Osmeña earlier said he would run for the city’s south district congressional seat. He is expected to compete against Guardo, who has been busy building up his image after he lost to Cuenco in the 2007 elections.
“We had a meeting two nights ago. Our discussion was centered on putting the final touches for the formation of TAMA. A major announcement will be made first week of October. We lost a small fry in Jojo Quijano but we caught the biggest fish of them all: Tony Cuenco. This is it. I’m very excited. This is going to be BO-PKs worst nightmare,” Guardo said.
Calamba barangay captain Victor “Jojo” Quijano was heavily supported by Guardo in the last barangay election and just recently jumped to the side of BO-PK.
The mayor denied allegations that he was harassing barangay captains to take his side, and said that Quijano has been very friendly to him.
