Cebuanos have spoken! Tom, you're fired!

While the 2013 elections are over and let's all hope that the results truly reflected the sentiment of the Filipino people, especially here in Cebu, thanks to the unreliable PCOS machines, which caused all the delays in last Monday's voting. Until we get reports from the Automated Election Systems (AES) watch, we will consider this election as the sentiment of the Cebuanos.

The biggest news of the day is the stunning upset victory of reelectionist Mayor Michael Rama over Rep. Tomas Osmeña who finally tasted his first ever political defeat. My latest count from GMA-7 as of 11:30am with 96.7% of precincts counted, Mayor Rama had 213,646 votes vs. Tomas Osmeña's 206,728 votes or a margin of 6,918 votes. In the vice-mayoralty race, Edgar Labella has a slim lead with 198,614 votes over Joy Young at 197,868 votes or a difference of 746 votes. This count is almost a done deal.

While these results are not yet final, this news has already reverberated throughout the nation that an Osmeña lost in what was always dubbed as “Osmeña” country. I'm sure political analysts will have a field day on analyzing why Tomas Osmeña lost to Mayor Mike Rama. For all intents and purposes, the Cebu City residents literally fired Tomas Osmeña.

In my book, Cebu City voters were fed up with the arrogance of Rep. Tomas Osmeña who always parroted his past projects like the South Road Project (SRP) for which he was already given the vote of confidence by his constituents who voted him for Congress. What we wanted to know was his accomplishments as a congressman in the South District of Cebu City, to which he didn't care to give any report.

The height of his arrogance was shown when he rejected the invitation of the Mega Cebu Candidates Forum, which was sponsored by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) to give Cebuanos a chance to hear their candidates in a debate. In fairness, Jun Jun Davide, Vice-Gov. Agnes Magpale and the Liberal Party Provincial slate all showed up to answer the toughest questions we asked. But LP or BO-PK in Cebu City refused to join any debates, lest they commit mistakes while they were ahead.

Then during last week's 888 Forum at the Marco Polo Plaza, BO-PK asked to present their full slate, but only Rep. Tomas Osmeña showed up. In that forum, Cebu Daily News Publisher Eileen Mangubat asked him what are his plans for Cebu City in the next three years and she gave Osmeña three minutes to reply as this was what everyone was given during the Mega Cebu forum. But Osmeña didn't give her any answer because he cannot give all his plans in just three minutes. Of course, he couldn't give it in three minutes, but all Eileen was asking was merely an outline, which he refused to give.

On the final week of the campaign, no one in Cebu City could claim as a clear-cut front-runner as both Mayor Mike and Tomas Osmeña were neck-to-neck in the surveys. So now it can be told that the Laity Initiatives for Elections (LIFE) were the swing vote to give Mayor Mike Rama a convincing victory. Yes we can claim that this was the Catholic vote as I predicted in my previous columns. All this despite Tomas Osmeña being supported by the Muslim votes and the solid Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) vote. During the 888 Forum, Rep. Osmeña pooh poohed the Catholic vote so it boomeranged on him.

So is this the end of the “Bisag Unsaon?” Not really. Ask yourself why did Cebu City voters still elect Mrs. Margot Osmeña. I guess that's because Margot has not changed, she has always been sweet and kind. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for her husband. Perhaps Tomas Osmeña just burned too many bridges. He had a great number of close friends surrounding him in the past, giving him the best advice. These days, he surrounds himself with only “yes men.” Call this election his comeuppance so he can think, ponder and ask himself, “Where did it all go wrong?”

Also a big upset surprise was the stunning win of former Sen. John “Sonny” Osmeña in Toledo City, the arch-enemy of Tomas Osmeña. Honestly, people thought Sonny “O” is already a “has-been” but apparently he has shown that he still has one final political card. Another shocking upset is the dramatic loss of our good friend, Rep. Eddie Gullas to JVR de los Reyes. My sources blame this on a “special ops” done against him.

In the Province of Cebu, Jun Jun Davide won over PJ Garcia by a wide margin and Rep. Pabling Garcia lost in the 2nd District. Many text messages are already pointing out that they were all “PCOSed”. At this point, it is up to PJ Garcia to file a petition to open the ballot boxes in order to show what really is the truth behind these election returns. If only the Comelec agreed to put in all those security requirements for the PCOS, we would not question the results, yes even in Cebu City. Again I reiterate that for as long as the PCOS have shown its unreliability, we must open all ballot boxes.

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