BOPK betrayed the urban poor – Tomas

Local

JUST DAYS before Cebu City’s new leaders assume power, a dramatic fracture has erupted inside the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).

This came after its founder and incoming Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña said that he also felt betrayed by Mayor-elect Nestor Archival Sr. and their party allies for supposedly betraying the city’s urban poor over the passage of the new zoning ordinance.

“I feel betrayed also… BOPK betrayed the urban poor. And I want to alienate myself from that,” Osmeña said in a scathing interview with broadcaster Jason Monteclar released on June 26. “I promised to help the urban poor, and I will always help them.”

The outburst followed the Cebu City Council’s approval of the revised zoning ordinance on June 25, a sweeping law that aligns with the new Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) but which vendors and urban poor groups fear will accelerate the privatization of Carbon Public Market.

The ordinance passed without objection from BOPK-allied councilors. Archival, who had previously promised to seek a deferment, quietly walked out of the session hall just before the vote, leaving those who had counted on him to speak up feeling abandoned.

“The city hall thinks they are a different government; they think like Gwen. If we look at the Capitol building, the power emanates from the people. Now it emanates from the council, which is wrong,” he said.

Osmeña warned that the ordinance would leave the poor behind while favoring developers and private interests.

“That's the problem, mga dato, here all the time. That land use plan is really the justification to legalize Megawide, and I strongly believe that money changed hands… The real crooks are not the drug pushers; it’s the billionaires. They steal our future,” he said.

The heart of Osmeña’s anger lies in what he sees as the betrayal of Carbon Market vendors.

“In a nutshell, they will throw all kinds of legal complications, but I will make it as simple as possible.

Carbon Market is a public market, which means it is not a private market. Don’t make a zoning ordinance. A private market is like Savemore or SM—that’s private,” Osmeña said.

“The public market is owned by the government, where small vendors who cannot build their own SMs come together, and the government gives them a chance to do business because each of them has a dream that one day they will move ahead in time,” he added.

However, he agreed that Carbon has long been commercial.

"Carbon is already commercial, but you can change it by changing the ordinance. The CLUP will override any previous ordinance,” he said.

He emphasized that the claim that the CLUP made

Carbon commercial was incorrect, saying, "Don’t say that the CLUP made Carbon commercial, that’s wrong because it’s already commercial."

He added that he would disagree with that assertion but would fight for his position.

"I will ask the people to fight for it,” he said.

In an interview on Friday, June 27, Archival confirmed that he and Osmeña haven’t talked since the approval.

"Actually, [since the] approval sa ordinance wala pa mi nagka estorya," Archival said.

He rejected accusations of betrayal, insisting that the ordinance had been in the works for years and needed to be passed before the end of the 16th Council’s term.

“Our intention was to negotiate so that the Carbon system could still be restored as before, without becoming too expensive. I was really firm about that. Now, they are asking for a deferment extension to study it. We explained that the CLUP has been in place for 29 years, but we still don’t have a comprehensive plan. In relation to that, we need a vehicle, which is the zoning ordinance,” he said.

Archival acknowledged that vendors had asked for time but maintained that the process could no longer wait.

“I will just say that I object, and if I do, I am sure the objection will be carried since the majority still supports it,” he added.

He also mentioned he intends to speak with Osmeña.(TGP)