BOPK will have a full 2022 slate, says Tommy O.

FORMER Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña assured that his party Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) will be able to present a full slate for the May 2022 elections.

But he won’t say who they are because he doesn’t want his political rivals, including Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Secretary Michael Dino, to raid his ranks.

Since the 2016 elections, Osmeña and Dino have been locked in a long-running rift.

Dino, who is the founder of the Bisaya Na Pud group in Cebu, one of the first groups that began pressuring Duterte to run as early as 2014, had an encounter with Osmeña even before Duterte won the presidency in 2016.

Though both men supported Duterte, their rift further worsened when Dino supported incumbent then Cebu City vice mayor Edgardo Labella to run for mayor in 2019.

In a separate interview, Dino told SunStar Cebu that Osmeña has “the right to hallucinate.”

With four months away just before the formal filing of candidacies, Osmeña said he is monitoring the situation should he run or not.

But Osmeña said “anything is possible.”

Osmeña was mayor of Cebu City thrice. He also served as congressman of Cebu City’s South District from 2010 to 2013.

During the 2019 elections, Osmeña lost the mayoral seat to Labella, who belongs to Barug-PDP Laban. (JJL)