NINE days before the start of the week-long filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) for all elective positions for the May 9, 2022 national and local elections, Cebu City Vice Mayor and now Acting Mayor Michael Rama said he has completed his full slate under “Partido Barug.”
“It has been completed. I cannot just announce it yet. There will be the right time, but if you are talking about who I am considering and possibly, already very clear, that my Vice Mayor is Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia,” he told SunStar Cebu in a phone interview on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021.
The Commission on Elections has set the filing of COC from Oct. 1 to 8 along with the new guidelines for the actual filing of COC.
Meanwhile, now that he will be acting mayor of Cebu City again after Mayor Edgardo Labella filed another medical leave effective Sept. 20 to Oct. 3, Rama said he will continue the activities for the vaccination program and other Covid-19 pandemic measures of the City.
“It’s not something new being acting mayor. In fact, I’ve been several times and I’ve never stopped whatever has been instituted by the mayor. We will have it continued,” he said.
This is Labella’s seventh leave for 2021, based on SunStar’s count. He took his first medical leave in January when sepsis developed from an ear infection. Now will be his first checkup for sepsis in Metro Manila. His other medical leaves were dedicated to recovering in Cebu.
Rama said the City has acted on the fire incident that hit Brgy. Labangon on Monday, Sept. 20, that damaged about 80 houses.
He said he will also look into the supplemental memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the Carbon Public Market redevelopment.
Earlier, the Cebu City Council adopted a MOA which aims to supplement the previous MOA entered into by the City Government of Cebu and Megawide Construction Corp. for the Carbon Public Market redevelopment.
Rama introduced the proposed MOA on Sept. 1 in his privilege speech during the regular session of the council.
The proposed MOA aims to enhance some parts of the joint venture agreement preliminary conditions, the project phasing, rights granted to Megawide, revenue sharing, losses and risks sharing, and construction start date and conditions precedent to construction start date.
He said he also told the executive department offices to ready and complete whatever liquidation should be submitted to the council before the filing of the COC.
He will also continue the works relevant to the Cebu City Medical Center, which formally opened its first three floors on Sept. 18. (WBS)