KUSUG endorses Rama, 3 others

CEBU, Philippines - Local political party, Kugi Uswag Sugbo (KUSUG), yesterday endorsed reelectionist Mayor Michael Rama and three of his teammates.

KUSUG officials made the official endorsement during the party convention. The other candidates that KUSUG will be supporting in the coming May 13 elections are Councilor Edgardo Labella, Rama’s runningmate, and congressional candidates Aristotle Batuhan, for the south district, and talent manager Annabelle Rama for the north district.

Lawyer Raymond Garcia, party president, said a complete list of candidates to be supported by them will be revealed soon in a much bigger convention before the local campaign period starts on March 29.

The party was supposed to announce five names of candidates for councilor in the north and another five in the south during the convention yesterday but did not materialize.

 â€œSukwahi sa akong giingon sa interview nga we will support five candidates for the north and five candidates for the south, wala na siya na-materialize (What I said, during interview that we will support five candidates for the north and five for the south, did not materialize),” Garcia told reporters saying that the “democratic ways of the party” prevailed.

He clarified though that his earlier statement was a “personal opinion”.  As the party president, he is bound to respect the decision of the majority.

“But you see, we’re still how many days until the official campaign period which will start after Holy Week pa man di ba. So we are planning an even bigger convention to call on our leaders maybe in a form na si-guro of a rally wherein we will announce already all the candidates including senators and councilors. Sa pagkakaron, I hope it is clear to everybody nga we are endorsing just the four,” Garcia said.

He also clarified that KUSUG and Team Rama are not forming an alliance against the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).

 â€œNo, not a coalition. It just so happened to be nga ang among gi-endorse karon belonged to Team Rama. Because if it were a coalition, we would have endorsed all 16 candidates,” he explained.

Garcia’s party earlier said that their list of candidates to be supported is a mixture of the Team Rama and BOPK.

In fact, KUSUG has members running under the slate of BOPK headed by South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña. One of them is Cogon Pardo Barangay Captain Jun Gabuya.

“As far as our record show, he is still a member of KUSUG. He has not tendered his resignation to the party as of the moment. And so far in all his speeches in front of BOPK supporters and members, makadungog man ta nga he’s been saying that he’s still a member of the KUSUG political party,” Garcia said.

He said Gabuya went to BOPK “because he is not a supporter of Mike Rama.”

Osmeña called yesterday’s gathering of KUSUG as a mere “publicity stunt.”

“Gabuya is a sure winner. The rest are losers. There will be no defections from BOPK because they were all BOPK rejects. But any of these candidates always has a chance to win but it’s not so good to bet on it,” Osmeña said in a text message sent to The FREEMAN.

Osmeña’s reaction, however, was already expected by KUSUG. Garcia said KUSUG expected that their endorsement will not be taken seriously by BOPK and Osmeña.

“He will always belittle the pwersa of KUSUG. But you cannot belittle the pwersa sa KUSUG kay sa niaging piniliay sa 2010, Alvin Garcia garnered over 100,000 votes against Mike Rama… Inigpanawag nato sa atong mga supporters, sigurado naa gihapon sila ug magpabilin gihapon. I hope that this (endorsement) will translate into votes for Mike Rama,” he said.

KUSUG president emeritus and former Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia vowed to work as consultant for Rama if the latter gets reelected. The former mayor wants to help Rama implement the projects that were stopped by Osmeña.

“I promise that if Mike Rama wins the elections, I will voluntarily work for the city government. No pay, Mike. Only one peso a year,” the former mayor said in jest.—/FPL (FREEMAN)