LET them hold on to their committee chairmanships.
Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella wants Team Rama not to strip Councilors Dave Tumulak and Hanz Abella of their committees in the City Council even if they have decided to leave the group.
“If I am to be followed, they should maintain their chairmanships. Dili sila hilabtan because they are independents. What is wrong with being independent? I believe in what they said that they are independent,” Labella said yesterday.
Team Rama, which is the majority bloc in the current council, gave Tumulak and Abella two committees when this term started last July 1.
Tumulak is chairperson of the committee on public order and safety and the committee on health, hospital services and sanitation. Abella heads the committee on education, science and technology, as well as the committee on games, amusement and sports.
Shift
Labella said that Tumulak and Abella have assured him they will still support Team Rama’s decisions if these will benefit the public.
The two ex-Team Rama allies said they will not abandon their committees unless the majority bloc will take these away from them.
“Kahibaw man sad sila nga mo-trabaho sad gyud ko (They know how hard I work),” Tumulak said.
Now that Abella and Tumulak have declared their independence from any political party, Team Rama only has nine members out of the 17-member council. Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) only has six.
Labella said that Team Rama has enough to compose a “simple majority” but not to override in case the mayor vetoes any legislative action.
Talks have been circulating at City Hall that Councilor Jerry Guardo or Councilor James Cuenco will bolt from Team Rama next and eventually join the group headed by Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Osmeña also said earlier that Labella will eventually abandon former mayor Michael Rama and added it will only be a matter of time.
Staying
Guardo was quick to dismiss the rumor.
“As a Christian, duna koy prinsipyo, duna sad koy baruganan unya nagtan-aw sad kog utang kabubut-on ba. Utang kabubut-on nako sa Team Rama especially kay former mayor Mike Rama ug sa mga supporters sa grupo ang pagkadaug nako pagka konsehal. Mao nang di ko kaako ug biya (As a Christian, I have principles and a debt of gratitude. I owe it to Team Rama, former mayor Mike Rama and our group’s supporters that I won a seat in the council. I cannot leave them),” he said.
He also said that his brother Jonathan Guardo, who is supporting BOPK, respects his stand.
As for Labella, he said it is impossible for him to leave their group because he is one of those who organized Team Rama.
If the public no longer wants him, he would rather retire from politics, he added.
Cuenco said he will not leave Team Rama, as he is even the one trying now to iron out things with Tumulak, Abella and the rest of their group.
“That (leaving Team Rama) will never happen,” he added.
According to Labella, Abella texted him and said he initially didn’t want to leave Team Rama, but decided to do so after his colleagues held it against him when he expressed support for the plans and programs of the mayor.
Cuenco said he had talked with Abella and still believes that the latter will stick it out with their group.
Oath
They met recently with Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino, and Cuenco said that Abella will even take oath as member of the PDP Laban like the other Team Rama members have done.
Abella, in a separate interview, said he is really open to joining PDP-Laban, considering that he is independent now.
But as to staying in Team Rama, he said Cuenco is only trying to save whatever can be saved.
Asked about the possibility of eventually jumping to BOPK, Abella said the BOPK members are trying to talk to him. “Everything is an option,” he said.
He has not decided yet, he also said.
Abella disclosed, though, that he has already talked to Councilor Joy Augustus Young and said he is willing to give up being the deputy mayor on education.
But he added he has not accepted it, yet like Tumulak.
Osmeña had earlier announced that he is offering Abella the deputy mayorship on education and Tumulak, the deputy mayorship on police matters, after they left Team Rama.
