Will Mayor Rama suffer snub in July 1 SOCA?

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama may have to give his  State of the City address somewhere else.

Members of the City Council are discussing doing away with the traditional address in its July 1  session.

“Wait to be invited,” said Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young.

If an invitation doesn’t come, the mayor should start planning another venue to deliver his SOCA, said Young.

The cool warning showed the growing strain in City Hall’s officialdom, after Rama broke away June 2 from the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) camp that do minates the council.

If the snub materializes, it would be the first time in recent history that the city legislature yanked out the welcome rug for the mayor’s annual address.

“I think he should wait to be invited now because we are no longer allies,” Young told Cebu Daily News.

“(Having) the SOCA in the inaugural session is not in the House rules,” he said.

“That should not be the case,” Mayor Rama said in a separate interview.

He said it’s been  a “tradition” since 1992 to invite the elected mayor to the council’s inaugural session to deliver his SOCA.

July 1 marks one year since the elected officials took their oaths of office after the May 2010 elections.

This makes it an anniversary event but the milestone session, by habit, is still called by many an “inaugural session.”

In the July 1 session, the council is expected to announce changes in standing committees, notably the appointment of Councilor Margot Osmeña to head the powerful finance and budget committee.

Mayor Rama told CDN he was preparing his speech  that would highlight his administration’s key development programs and milestones.

“We have to see how I’ve fared as mayor, where we came in and what we have accomplished so far,” he said.

He said he would also announce  “internal movements” among department heads as a part of “corporate management” but that this would not be the major content.

Vice Mayor Young said he still has to discuss with council members the program and guest list for July 1.

“He should wait to be invited. Can he show up here if he’s not invited?” he said of the mayor.

The snub is a strange twist for Rama, who presided over the council as vice mayor for nine years until he succeeded Tomas Osmeña under the BO-PK banner in the 2010 elections.

Vice Mayor Young said the councilors are toying with the idea of doing with an inaugural session this year.

“The inaugural session is supposedly done only once in your term. If we hold a session on July 1, it would be a regular session to introduce the council reorganization and maybe the mayor’s SOCA. But it’s not final. We are still going to discuss it,” he told CDN.

Young said it was possible they would even scrap the SOCA in the agenda if they agree to have a “simpler” session marking a first anniversary of their term.

He said he could recall two or three instances when former mayor Tomas Osmeña, BO-PK chieftain and now south district congressman, didn’t give his annual SOCA.

Mayor Rama isn’t looking for a new venue for the moment.

“I don’t want to think about that,” he said.

“It’s already a  practice to have the SOCA in the inaugural session.  There’s no need for a formal invitation because it’s already in the agenda,” he said.

Rama said a mayor’s SOCA  delivered in the council is a “tradition” that shows the unity of the executive and legislative departments.

“It is for the purpose of bringing to the people’s attention that there is only one government,” he said.

Mayor Rama said he remains hopeful that he would have the support of the council in his administration.“I don’t want to talk about party. Our responsibility is to our constituents,” he said.  /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac