A coming Team Rama-BOPK political tiff

There is an important political war that this group called BOPK is going to wage on Jan. 11, 2014. This is the election of the officials of the league of barangay councilors, Cebu City chapter. It is important for BOPK because the loss of its corps of candidates for the positions in the league will toll heavily on its viability as a group. Of course, in calling this as a political war, we do not hide behind the mask of the legal character of elective barangay officials as non-partisan because truthfully, they are frontiersmen of political groupings.

BOPK is the name of the group of former Cebu City South District Congressman Tomas R. Osmeña. Initial reports say that he is fielding the barangay kagawad of our Barangay Kasambagan as his candidate for the presidency of the league. While he is actually the incumbent head of the league, and therefore he is looking for a re-election, his candidacy does not anymore carry the perceived invincibility of his group.

Here is why it is so.

First incident. The BOPK suffered already suffered three defeats in contests that dented its undefeatable image. The first loss took place in 1997. It was, by coincidence, also the election of the barangay councilors league. In that contest, it paraded Atty. Sisinio Andales, as its candidate for president. Atty. Andales, now a third term member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, was the number one councilor of Barangay Pahina Central.

His candidacy was challenged by the number one barangay kagawad of our Barangay Kasambagan. Because the BOPK was virtually unchallenged in previous elections, all that its leader (then, the mayor) did was to attend barangay council sessions, actually called at his behest, and announce the BOPK line-up. In such sessions, he raised the hands of the group's candidates, as if in anticipation of an obvious victory.

The opponent of Atty. Andales, did not enjoy such a massive support of the city administration. She relied upon her organizational experience having been voted number one district governor in the whole world in a Toastmasters International Convention in San Diego, California, USA. Indeed, working like a true underdog, she had to campaign like Che Guevarra in the early revolutionary years of South America.

Records now tell us that the BOPK suffered a humiliating defeat because Atty. Andales, got only about a little over 30 percent of the votes cast while his opponent, captured nearly 70 percent of the ballots. The BOPK head was so embarrassed that he announced his resignation from the group as a result of that devastating loss.

Second incident; the 2013 local election was a contest between the perceived master and his otherwise meek student. Many political observers thought that the many elections of Cebu's history where an Osmeña, the master, got challenged but eventually emerged winner, was to repeat. He was not supposed to be denied his destiny. On the other hand, Mayor Michael L. Rama, the student, despite being the incumbent, was practically the underdog. Heavy gamblers and political analysts gave the latter no winning chance. Mayor Rama then shocked almost everybody when he romped off with a six thousand plus victory margin over the former congressman.

Third incident; it intrigued me that the recently concluded elections of the Association of Barangay Councils did not get as much attention from most city residents. I then surmised that it could be the design of the BOPK not to attract publicity because it was unsure of its hold among barangay captains. True, there was an attempt to polarize the barangay village chiefs by identifying them as supporters of either Team Rama or BOPK. That could be the match-making peak, nothing more. So, when the ABC elected as its head a Team Rama follower, the story did not merit much discussion.

Just the same, the ABC election showed that the BOPK is not as invincible as some people thought. This mind frame will have an impact on the Jan. 11, 2014 barangay councilors league elections where Atty. Raymond Garcia, son of the former City Mayor Alvin Garcia, a perceived Team Rama candidate, will challenge the leadership of incumbent president Franklin Ong, an ally of former congressman Osmeña.