[] ‘Not a woman,” it says.
THE latest call-out to Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival Sr. was made by his vice mayor, Tomas Osmeña, during an executive session Tuesday, August 25, 2026, which discussed implementation of the BanTal (Banilad-Talamban) Discipline Zone.
(City Hall is reportedly auditing the City Transportation Office data base after an executive order to drop “stale” traffic fines, along with a councilor’s proposal to adopt a one-time waiver of traffic penalties.)
The video clip of VM Tomas’s comment – circulated by, among others, MyTV and CDN Digital – highlighted this point:
The City cannot enforce discipline if the example of obeying the rules is not “set from above.” How can they “discipline the public when the biggest violator is the mayor himself?”
The vice mayor mentioned the “biggest-violator” tag twice. Arguing that (a) City Hall cannot preach discipline if the top does not show discipline, and (b) what’s important is “what’s good for the people of Cebu, not what’s good for the mayor.”
Lumped by VM Tomas with “biggest violator” Mayor Nestor were “all these” ambassadors and other VIPs and their motorcycle escorts who break through traffic.
And then, Tomas tucked this in, prefaced with the line “The example should be set from above”:
“Not only Nestor but Dara. Why is she exempted?”
“They brag about thorough consultation. That’s b...s..t,” he said. “I’ve been mayor four times,” VM Tomas said, “I’ve had experience in traffic. they don’t ask me,” he said.
In his latest tirade against his party-mate, Osmeña picked on another issue troubling City Hall.
Previously, in News+One, August 14, 2026: “Seares: VM Tomas Osmeña publicly accuses, again, Mayor Nestor Archival: How much verbal assault would it take before they fix, or blow up, things?”
Dara who? VM Tomas didn’t use a surname or title in his comment before the City Council. He must have assumed that everyone in the room, if not the rest of the public, knew who “Dara” is.
Or he intentionally left out any qualifier as courtesy to the woman or just wanted to spice his remarks.
The mayor was not but the other alleged violators of BanTal traffic rules were not named, just “ambassadors and other VIPs, with their motorcycle escorts.”
A “Dara” was named but with no surname or other qualifier.
The news bulletins haven’t yet included the matter of Dara. Thus, in a whim, I asked Meta AI whom VM Tomas was referring to.
Not a woman, its reply says.
Meta AI says that what Osmeña said -- and we, news media consumers, heard – in the video clip was “dara,” a contraction of “diri ara” or “dia ra”), “which literally translates to “here it is” or “look at this.” Like in “Dara ang problema” (Here is the problem) or “Dara ilang gibuhat” (Look at what they are doing).
There is zero reference, Meta AI says, “to a lawyer or romantic partner in the session transcript or the legislative debate.” We, news media consumers, it says, “merely heard a linguistic quirk of the Bisaya language!” (exclamation point is Meta AI’s).
In effect, a rejection that the vice mayor meant “Dara” to be a person – and Meta AI’s tutorial on Cebuano-Bisaya.
VM Osmeña clearly meant persons when Tomas mentioned the alleged violators: namely, “ambassadors and VIPs” -- and “Dara,” which he preceded with “not only Nestor.”
It acknowledges that the name “Dara” in local political circles specifically points to Atty. Dara C. Acusar, “an exceptionally accomplished attorney” who graduated valedictorian from USC and Ateneo Law and placed second in the 1999 bar exams.
Acusar, Meta AI tells, has served as a systems management consultant for the mayor’s office in Cebu City and received in 2019 a mayor’s special award for her “professional contributions to Cebu City’s growth.” She was, among various government positions she had filled, undersecretary for Department of Budget and Management.
Opposition and online political gossip, Meta AI says, have “occasionally weaponized her (Atty. Acusar’s) name with baseless romantic rumors to spark controversy.” And “no legitimate news outlets or official records have ever validated these malicious claims.”
Meta AI says commentators bringing up “Dara” in policy discussions on traffic or any major issue such as the Monterrazas and the floods may be “deliberately trying to pivot the conversation toward old, unverified gossip.”
Or so Meta AI says, apparently basing on the published information it has fed on from various sources.
But in the current furor set off at the City Council, the source is no ordinary “commentator” but a public official, the mayor’s vice mayor and party-leader, and presiding officer of the local legislature.
Could VM Tomas be diverting from the debate when he included “Dara” in the list of “traffic violators,” whose violations, he argues, are making discipline on BanTal road unenforceable?