WHAT JUST HAPPENED. At a press conference Monday (August 10, 2026), Cebu City Vice Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña criticized Mayor Nestor D. Archival Sr. of “prioritizing” the rich and the influential over the public across several projects of the City Government.
“He’s playing it safe all the time,” VM Osmeña said this week, reenforcing the quote as sound bite in the news coverage of the city’s two highest officials who are political allies under BOPK (Bando Osmena Pundok Kauswagan), party-mates, Tomas the party leader and Nestor’s mentor.
Not the first time, this lash-out from the vice mayor.
When Mayor Archival skipped the July 13, 2026 commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the 2016 Arbitral Award on the West Philippine Sea, Tomas charged Nestor was “playing safe” and “avoiding a clear public stand” on the issue.
Related: Seares: Mayor Archival, VM Osmeña publicly clash on major issues
TAKEAWAYS from the latest blast of the vice mayor against his mayor regarding the latter’s alleged failure or slowness to respond to a number of issues:
Complaints over a “worsening” traffic situation along the Banilad-Talamban road reportedly prompted the second “playing it safe” attack by VM Tomas last August 10.
What set off the first blast about Mayor Archival “playing it safe” was his absence from July 13 commemoration of the landmark maritime ruling. Tomas said Nestor “preferred not to be identified or seen taking a firm stance alongside national defense officials,” such as Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro who came for the celebration. The VM apparently wanted local leaders to openly support national sovereignty.
Nothing wrong with “acting with care to avoid, risk, danger or loss.” After all, “choosing the most secure and predictable path, not taking a chance on the uncertain” is an act of a prudent leader.
What must hurt is this meaning: In playing safe, Mayor Nestor doesn’t want to take any risk at all.
NDA supporters may argue that prudence often counts and helps. And in running the city, Mayor Nestor takes risk in most moves, including – a City Hall watcher quips -- acting or not acting on what VM Tomas wants or does not want. Past mayors mentored similarly must have stories to tell.
The vice mayor said in his July 13 press-con the mayor is “doing it all the time.” A shotgun blast.
So far VM Tomas has specified at least three issues: “(Nestor) is not helping the Carbon Market because he’s playing it safe. He’s not doing Monterrazas because he’s playing it safe…”
On the BanTal Road traffic problem, Tomas said the Bus Rapid Transit project would’ve resolved it. It was “not prioritized (by the mayor),” the VM said, “because it did not benefit the major developers of the area.”
Count: Carbon, Monterrazas, West Philippine Sea issue, BRT and BanTal. They must be the issues that prompted the VM to say the mayor is “doing it (the delay) all the time.”
This must be what VM Tomas means by the phrase: when Mayor Nestor doesn’t act, or acts differently from, or even opposes what the vice mayor wants done or not done.
--- The apparent riff between the two prime movers of the City Government complicates problems in projects planned or being undertaken.
The mayor faces not just the opposing majority but also his VM, whose own opposition lends strength to the anti-Archival bloc. And the public nature of Tomas’s rebukes – in lieu of a caucus or phone call with Nestor -- have not helped.
--- Garbage, floods, and traffic (GFT) continue and worsen even as their term’s end is near: bad for Archival’s reelection chances and bad for the reigning BOPK, which holds the record of having stayed the longest at City Hall and had longer chance to fix them or keep those problems in check. The GFT three is often the first lens city voters use to assess the incumbent.
--- The dispute reenforces the accusation that whoever other mayor the city elects, it’s always Tomas Osmeña that wants to run the City Government.
Splits in BOPK leadership have been caused by the sitting mayor being “dictated,” allegedly, by out-of-City Hall Tomas. (The 2025-2028 term is the first time that Tomas is inside the City Government, but not as chief executive.)
VM Tomas, in accusing Mayor Nestor of favoring the rich and powerful, virtually slaps him on the face with the 2025 election “pro-poor platform focused on economic relief and basic services.”
“Help, serve the poor” was Archival’s and BOPK’s propaganda line. “Rich and powerful” was hardly mentioned.
In his March 2025 mayoral campaign, Archival gave allies like Osmena and the public an idea of his style of governance and a self-imposed discipline to study a course of action before taking it.
His propensity for “playing it safe” must have been seen from his election promise. He cautioned people to “reject temporary band-aids” not in just choosing leaders but also in adopting or accepting solutions to problems. Archival committed his administration to “studying sustainable, permanent solutions for chronic urban distress.”
Could Mayor Archival be still studying “permanent solutions” -- to Carbon Market, Monterrazas, traffic garbage and flood and the like -- even as VM Osmeña views it as an incorrigible habit of “playing safe”?
The mayor has so far avoided a public confrontation or even a hostile exchange with his mentor and BOPK leader the vice mayor. Nestor either refused to comment, or sidetracked the issue, or feigned not knowing what Tomas meant.
When would the rope snap? Depends on how far Tomas would go in thrashing, or how much Nestor could bear the beating up. Depends on how much they want and need to get reelected in 2028. Depends on how strong their BOPK relationship was and is.
There might be enough number of voters who decide for the city thus: Enough of BOPK’s long struggle to overcome garbage, floods and traffic: “Malooy, o mapul-an, sab ta oy. Give another party na sad the burden of saving the city from distress.”