Tom O. tells Labella, Daluz: You’re ‘silly impostors’, resign

Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district has called councilors Edgar Labella and Jose Daluz III “silly impostors” for staying in their respective positions as majority and assistant majority floor leader in the city council.

Osmeña reiterated his call for them to take a graceful exit and resign from their post.

“But they won’t resign and that’s because they want to be kicked out and be portrayed as martyrs. I would not give them that distinction. I would rather that they stay (in their current positions) and we can show the people that they really are silly impostors pretending that they are the majority, and they think they can fool the people,” said Osmeña in a text message.

In an interview,  Daluz said he is willing to relinquish his post as assistant majority floor leader but not through resignation.

He said there must be a reorganization in the council’s leadership and committee chairmanship.

“They cannot even strip us of our positions because we were elected by our fellow councilors. We can only be removed through an election which is the proper thing to do,” he said.

Daluz said he already discussed the matter with councilor Labella, the laws committee chairman, and they both agreed on the need for a reorganization in the city council.

But Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said it would be “mental dishonesty” if Labella and Daluz would not resign.

Young added the two got their positions in the council not in an election but through an internal agreement among BOPK councilors during their July 2011 inaugural session.

He said as a procedure, the positions of majority and assistant majority floor leaders should go to two members of the majority block in the council.

Since they already left BOPK, they should also relinquish their current positions.

But this confused Daluz saying BOPK is not even a political party because all of them including Osmeña ran under the Liberal Party (LP) in the 2010 elections.

But Young said he would not mind if they opt to stay in their current positions and he refused to discuss the issue further as “it is just a waste of time.”

Daluz has formally announced his defection from BOPK when former congressman Antonio Cuenco declared support for Mayor Michael Rama’s reelection.

Daluz said his bond with Cuenco is beyond politics because of Cuenco’s close ties with his late mother, Nenita “Inday Nita” Cortez-Daluz.

Labella, on the other hand, has also officially declared that he will be Rama’s running mate in the coming 2013 elections.