For Cebu City MAYOR: Mike Rama (BOPK) or Alvin Garcia (KUSUG)

[peewee_toot]

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BOPK jd ko oi. wai ayu mga garcia...

[rockrhyan1982]

Kusug fields Alvin


FORMER Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia will attempt a political comeback for the third time and will campaign on the need for change.

He promised to provide the city with the basic services that he said have been neglected by the administration.

Yesterday, Alvin ended weeks of speculations on who would be the opposition’s standard bearer when he filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for mayor under Kugi Uswag Sugbu (Kusug), the party he formed when he bolted the administration in 2001.

His running mate is former city councilor Rodolfo Cabrera, who will face his former colleague in the City Council, Joy Augustus Young, in the vice mayoral race.

Alvin and Cabrera, both lawyers, replaced Kusug’s stand-in candidates Landelino Bontilao and Jonah John Rodriguez for mayor and vice mayor.

Cogon Pardo Barangay Captain Eugenio Gabuya also filed his COC for south district councilor as a substitute candidate.

“Ang singgit sa katawhan karon kay kausaban (The people are now calling for change). Our City faces a lot of problems today.

One is that it has run out of funds for basic services, for hospital services, road and drainage repairs and even gasoline for our police cars. Wala na ta’y kwarta bugti sa atong kaayohan (Our welfare cannot be bought by money). That is why we are here today,” Alvin said.

Both Alvin and Cabrera are former stalwarts of Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).

Alvin said he is ready to face Vice Mayor Michael Rama in the mayoral race next year, and is confident he will win the elections as shown by the results of a recent survey.

But for Rama, Alvin’s decision to run is anti-climactic.

“After all the hype, they’ll go back to Alvin (as standard bearer). There’s nothing to be surprised about. Grabe gyud kaayo ang ilang gi-project (they projected something big), you’d think it’s something big... But he was already there before as mayor, diba? So what catalyst of change is there to speak of?” he asked.

For Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Alvin is an “expert in losing,” and it is up to the voters to choose their next mayor.

“You just see the way they organize. They could not even organize a campaign, and they want to run the city? He is the expert on how to lose 130,000 votes,” he told reporters yesterday.

In a press conference after noontime yesterday, Tomas wondered what Alvin has to offer, saying the former mayor has served two terms and then people have rejected him twice.

He said he has one question for Alvin: “Why did he lose in the last elections?”

In reply, Alvin said, “I don’t need to dignify his comments because those are the usual comments of manipulators and cheaters.”

Georgia Osmeña, for her part, was glad that it is Alvin who is running for mayor.

“That’s nice! Looks like we’ll have an easy fight after all,” she told Sun.Star Cebu in a text message.

Georgia is also running for Cebu City mayor.

Alvin said he was the party’s first choice for candidate for mayor but he deferred the filing of his COC when he learned that his cousin, Government Service Insurance System president Winston Garcia, was also interested in running.

He said Winston recently decided to run for a higher office, prompting Kusug to go back to its original plan.

Sun.Star Cebu tried calling Winston, but calls to his mobile phone were not answered.

Alvin said he wants to correct the mistakes Mayor Tomas Osmeña made regarding the South Road Properties (SRP), which costs the City some P800 million a year in loan obligations.

The lack of a master plan, he said, is keeping the City from maximizing its income from the project. If he wins, he intends to commission experts in business to improve the marketability of the SRP.

He said basic services have deteriorated because of the City’s debts, and it will not improve if Osmeña’s allies are elected into office.

“In the end, it’s the electorate who will choose... I can beat Mike Rama but more importantly, we have to face the issues and the main issue now is change. Are you satisfied with your life right now? Have things improved since I left in 2001? Has peace and order improved? This is what every Cebuano should ask himself. It is time for change,” Alvin said.

Alvin was elected vice mayor from 1988 to 1995. When Osmeña decided not seek a third term as mayor, Alvin ran for mayor and won in the 1995 and 1998 election.

In 2001, he ran against Osmeña and lost. He ran against Osmeña again in 2004 and lost.

As for the comments that Kusug’s candidates are recycled losers, Alvin said, “I’d rather be an honest loser than be a cheating, manipulative winner. Ask Tomas what that means.”

Lawyer Raymond Alvin Garcia, Kusug spokesperson and candidate for north district councilor, said his father has better chances this time.

He said the partial results of a survey conducted by an independent group, which showed that Alvin has a 20-percent lead in the north district, where 439 voters participated in the survey.

Alvin supposedly got 253 votes or 57.6 percent, while Rama only got 151 votes or 34.3 percent of the votes, according to the survey, which Raymond said the Kusug did not commission.

But Rama doubts the survey results, saying that no candidate would admit they are lagging in any survey.

For his part, Cabrera said his performance in the council, his qualifications and 44 years of experience in the law profession make him a better candidate than Young.

When he was city councilor, he authored the Real Estate Tax Code, the Cebu City Omnibus Tax Code, “which are the two ordinances that generated so much revenues for the City.”

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Alvin needs a lot of ****** to be able to STAND this battle.

[eslowrak]

Alvin needs a lot of ****** to be able to STAND this battle.

Ngano kinahanglan man ug ****** si Alvin, ubo na lay gahi?

[gikapoy]

kamo ba ayaw ninyo bugal bugali c alvin
inspired baya na siya ni Abraham Lincoln
sa iya pa gi ingon c Abraham cge pud ka pildi pero na himo siya ug greates president sa US

"alvin is expert in losing"

[raski]

Anti-Osmena, hahahaha laughable. I'm glad the Garcias are suffering from mass delusion. Basig mao ning tawag nila nga "gaba" just like the Abineses who kept losing in Santander but didn't know when to quit until they lost all their money...

[peewee_toot]

bagag leps ang mga garcia.

[pinoyapache]

Expert in losing? Basin expert in delusion?

[lestat1116]

natagam gyud ang mga tao kang alvin. nidayon gyud ang buang. ang mga mubotar niya kana ra siguro iyang mga kauban nga magtambay sa BO's ayala.

wala jud na mo tambay c alvin dha sa bos ayala. sa white gold na motambay c alvin.

[Decepticon]

poll result for alvin; 3 out of 40. Not that bad, it could have been reliable say 5% of the total voting population in Cebu surveyed.