Tom "invited" to LP Manila HQ

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City South District Representative Tomas Osmeña may be inching towards getting the most-coveted Liberal Party endorsement as he is invited to the LP headquarters in Manila.

Osmeña, in a press conference at his residence in barangay Guadalupe the other day, revealed that he will be in the LP headquarters on Monday but refused to divulge the purpose as well as who invited him.

Hilario Davide III, LP chairman for Cebu, when asked by The FREEMAN if he knew of this meeting, said he had no idea about it.

Meanwhile, Osmeña clarified that the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), which he heads, may link up with a national party, but their loyalty only lies to the people of Cebu City.

“Basic principle of BOPK: we’re not loyal to any national party per se. Our loyalty is to the people of Cebu City,” he said. And because of this, they follow their own rules set by BOPK, and “not subject to any party discipline,” he said. “They can’t tell us what to do,” he said.

As for Osmeña’s visit to the LP headquarters on Monday, Mayor Michael Rama also has no idea about it.

Rama said he is not slighted that he was not invited and added that he does not care if Osmeña is going to their headquarters or not.

Meanwhile, with only a few more weeks to the filing of the certificates of candidacy, Osmeña said the BOPK is already preparing their documents.

“The documents are prepped way before the filing. They are all centralized, to be delivered to the COMELEC,” he said. He explained that they had to do the preparation earlier to avoid errors later on, and to give them time to double check the entries. He cited the incident in 2007 when then Barangay Day-as chief Michael Ocleasa mistakenly submitted his COC for barangay councilman instead of barangay chairman.

Except for himself as the mayoralty bet, Osmeña, however, could not give names yet as to who would make up the entire list of candidates under the BOPK banner. — (FREEMAN)