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BEING upstaged by a younger cousin in the plans of the Liberal Party for Cebu doesn’t sit well with former senator John H. Osmeña.
He was upset to learn that he would be asked to forego plans to run for mayor of Cebu City to preserve the “coalition” with the Bando Osmeña- Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK)
“I was there (in the LP oath taking) and he (campaign manager Butch Abad) did not even say, pwede ba mag withdraw ka na lang?” an irate Sonny told Cebu Daily News.
The intention to ask him to pull back was in the headlines of Cebu dailies the day after the oath-taking of about 500 local LP members in Cebu City on Wednesday.
Sonny said he would meet with LP stalwart Franklin Drilon to appeal the reported appointment of cousin Tomas, outgoing mayor, as LP chairman in Cebu City.
“I will appeal this to the executive committee of Liberal Party. I will dispute the decision of naming Tomas as the chapter chairman in the city,” he said.
And if they don’t reconsider?
“I will cross the bridge when I get there. I will not speculate for now,” Sonny said.
Sonny threatened to run as a “rebel candidate” of LP if the party national leadership won’t heed his appeal.
Tomas didn’t sign up with the LP. His BO-PK used to have a coalition with Lakas in the 2004 election, Sonny pointed out.
Others who took their oath as LP members, aside from Sonny, were former congresswoman Clavel Martinez, Bogo mayor Celestino Martinez Jr. and son, Celestino “Tining ”Martinez III.
Abad told reporters on Wednesday that only one LP member should run for mayor in Cebu City to strengthen their group and that Hiliario Davide III, LP provincial chairperson, would have to talk to Sonny and convince him to back out of the mayoral race.
Sonny said he would run with a slate, even if it’s a partial one.
He named four councilor aspirants for the north district: former Cebu City Councilor Danilo Fernan, basketball star Ramon Fernandez, lawyer Fritz Quiñanola and Jimboy Tiongco.
Sonny said he planned to “adopt” BO-PK south district candidates Margot Osmeña, Ritchie Osmeña, Edu Rama and Jose Daluz to develop a “friendly rivalry” with BO-PK and Tomas.
“But now that things have ruptured, I will have to find other people in the south,” he said yesterday.
“I tried to make it a friendly rivalry with BO-PK because I was hoping that in the end, BO-PK would drop Mike Rama because he is not electable. But now, there will no longer be any friendly terms with BO-PK. I will come up with my own slate,” he told CDN.
He said that since things have started to get “rough”, he would dig up records of BO-PK's performance in the last nine years.
BO-PK allies such as Rep. Raul de Mar (north district) and Antonio Cuenco (south district) have kept their party affiliations with Lakas.
ABS CBN Manila reported last night that Cuenco was among the Lakas members who attended the proclamation of Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as standard bearer of Lakas-Kampi CMD.
