Serging vs Remotigue for Cebu City mayor
The November 14, 1967 election for Cebu City mayor was a battle between Cebu's famous trial lawyer and an incumbent senator who was a former mayor. One of the protagonists was incumbent Senator Sergio "Serging" Chiong Veloso Osmeña Jr. who was the first elected Cebu City mayor and the slayer of the son of the political giant, Dr. Manuel Cuenco, the incumbent governor whom he defeated in his first political battle in the 1951 election. His adversary was Francisco Emilio F. Remotigue (who became a lawyer on November 18, 1935) who was a pre-war Provincial Board member (1935-1938), the first elected vice governor of Cebu in 1959 and governor of Cebu from 1961 to 1963.
Governor Remotigue lost his reelection bid to the Bar topnotcher, a political neophyte in 1964, the road building governor, Rene Espina. Governor Remotigue holds the title as the only Cebuano cabinet secretary of the Department of Social Welfare from 1966 to 1967 as prelude to his bid for his return to the governorship being an appointee of President Marcos, the patron of the Nacionalista Party.
Kikoy Remotigue was the son of Quintino Gerosaga Remotigue and Segundina Famor. He was the standard bearer of the incumbent president's party, the Nacionalista Party (President Marcos defeated president Diosdado Macapagal in 1965, the former was senate president then) in the 1967 election.
Senator Serging Osmeña was elected senator in 1965 under the Liberal Party with Diosdado Macapagal gunning for his reelection as president. It was a debacle for the Liberal Party, with Macapagal losing to Marcos and with only two Senatorial candidates as winners, Jovito Salonga and Serging Osmeña. In the 1967 election the Nacionalista Party was supported by Marcos while the Liberal Party of Cebu was on its own led by Serging Osmeña.
Senator Osmeña was challenged by his two former political allies. Aside from Remotigue another candidate was lawyer Carlos "Carling" J. Cuizon who was Osmeña's vice mayor in the 1959 elections. Osmeña, who won as mayor, did not assume the office and instead finished his congressional term making Cuizon as Cebu City mayor from 1960 to 1963 and again in 1965 to 1967.
Serging trampled his adversaries by garnering 42,192 votes with Governor Remotigue earning 26,463 votes and Mayor Cuizon with 5,436 votes. Senator Osmeña did not assume the mayorship and instead finished his term in the Senate, thus his vice mayor, Eulogio Enriquez Borres, an engineer from the University of the Philippines, succeeded him as Cebu City mayor.
The councilors of Osmeña were Atty. Florencio S. Urot, Raymundo A. Crystal, Atty. Ronald R. Duterte (first cousin of President Duterte and later president of the University of Southern Philippines and dean of its College of Law), Bienvenido B. Tudtud, Arturo L. Abellana, Atty. Jesus S. Gabuya, Jose V. Arias, Caridad A. Trocino, and Dr. Jose V. Rodriguez.
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