Osmena’s Survey Shows He’s Leading; Rama Dismisses Result

Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas R. Osmeña yesterday announced that the latest survey, which the Bando Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan (BOPK) had commissioned, shows that reelectionist Mayor Michael Rama is still behind him in the mayoralty race in 22 lowland barangays of the city’s south district.

The overall survey results in the 22 south district urban barangays showed that Osmeña got 57 percent votes while Rama only garnered 40 percent while the remaining three percent were undecided of which of the two mayoralty aspirants they will support.

In that survey, conducted by a Manila-based firm and a locally-based one, the city’s 80 barangays were divided into four sectors – the upland and lowland barangays of both the north and south districts.

Osmeña, however, decided that the announcement of the outcome of the survey will be made in four installment basis to give the public a thrill, although he gave this reporter the chance to decide of which of the four sector surveys will be announced first.

The lawmaker claimed that of the 22 lowland barangays of the south district, there are nine barangays that are headed by barangay captains who are Rama’s allies namely Basak-Pardo, Basak-San Nicolas, Buhisan, Dulho-Fatima, Inayawan, Mambaling, Punta Princesa, Suba-Abuno and Sawang Calero.

Survey results shown by Osmeña to MetroCebu News showed that in Basak-Pardo he only got 39% while Rama got 58%, in Basak-San Nicolas the congressman only had 29% and Rama 67%. Barangay Basak-San Nicolas is where Rama lives.

Even if the barangay captain of Buhisan is an ally of Rama, but surprisingly Osmeña got 62% while Rama had 33%, while in Dulho-Fatima the mayor seems not also popular during the survey because he only got 33% while Osmeña 64%.

Osmeña is behind in Inayawan as he only got 45% while Rama had 52%, but in Mambaling the survey shows that the congressman got 54% as compared to only 42% of Rama.

The lawmaker seems to be also popular in Punta Princesa because he beat Rama with 57% compared to only 38%. But Rama is popular in Sawang Calero with 50% while Osmeña only got 46%.

In barangay Suba-Abuno, however, Osmeña got 56% and Rama 33%. Of the nine barangays whose barangay captains are allies of Rama, Osmeña got an overall 52% while his opponent 48%.

Osmeña highlighted the fact that of the 13 barangays whose captains are BOPK allies not even a single barangay that he lost to his rival.

The south district urban barangays whose captains are BOPK supporters are Pasil, Bulacao, Calamba, Cogon-Pardo, Guadalupe, Kalunasan, Kinasang-an, Labangon, Pahina-San Nicolas, Poblacion Pardo, Quiot, San Nicolas Central and Tisa.

Reacting to the BOPK survey results, Rama said he has also an inspiring result of his own survey, but he will not announce it to the public. “Kauwaw nato kon sigi ta og pahibalo sa atong survey nga mangangkon ta nga daug apan mapilde diay. Sagdi lang trabaho lang ta,” the mayor said. (It’s a shame for us if we keep on claiming in our survey that we
will win but will lose. It’s okay, let’s just keep on working.”)

In Barangay Guadalupe, the city’s biggest barangay, Osmeña got 62% while Rama had 34%.

Osmeña said he is not worried that several barangay captains are no longer supporting him. When Rama called up a press conference at his house in Basak-San Nicolas last Sunday, 42 barangay captains had attended.

But Osmeña recalled that when he first run as mayor in 1988, he had only barangay captains in the entire south district supporting his candidacy, but the results of the elections was he won in almost all barangays, except in Sudlon which had two precincts.

Osmeña even won in Barangay Basak-San Nicolas where his opponent that time had a candidate for councilor who is a member of the Rama family. When Osmeña first run as mayor, he used to be living in Camputhaw, but Osmeña defeated his opponent in 66 out of 69 precincts, including in the latter’s precinct in Guadalupe that time.