The results of the recent elections, in which the powerful Garcia political dynasty was clobbered, bring new hope for Cebu City and Cebu Province.

Although I lived in Manila most of my life, my migratory family has lived in Cebu for over 60 years. During our early years here, we were quite impressed with the good sense and independence of Cebu voters. They consistently chose leaders who cared about the welfare of the province and its people. The names still ring a bell: Osmeña, Briones, Jakosalem, Cuenco, etc.

During the latter part of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr.’s dictatorship, the only organized opposition group, Pusyon Bisaya, was based in Cebu. Their leaders, notably Hilarion Davide and Filemon Fernandez, were aggressive in criticizing policies of the authoritarian government. Marcos, who was then trying to impress the global political community, tolerated their dissent.

When our family moved here in the late 1950s, Cebu City was a quiet city, whose narrow and very old roads were plied with caretelas (horse-drawn carriages), called tartanillas by the locals. I could hire one for an hour to take me and my baby sister around the main road, then called Jones Ave., which fronted the provincial capitol and made a U-turn at the rotunda known by everyone as “Pwente” (Fuente Osmeña). Most of the streets were very narrow as they were built centuries earlier by the Spanish colonial government in the oldest city in the Philippines. Automobiles had not yet been invented then.

When then Governor Lito Osmeña was chosen by then President Cory Aquino to be the running mate of presidential candidate Fidel V. Ramos, his vice-governor, Pablo Garcia, became acting governor. Eventually, Garcia’s daughter Gwen became his provincial administrator. Pablo Garcia enabled his only daughter to practically run the provincial government. This encouraged Gwen Garcia to eventually run for governor and to win.

As a politician, Gwen Garcia proved highly skilled, making good use of her degree in mass media communications from UP to draw the majority of provincial voters to re-elect her several times. She was also highly skilled in having her Ombudsman convictions for graft and corruption nullified by the Court of Appeals. She also became shrewd at linking up with ultra-high government officials to support her expensive projects.

When a powerful earthquake hit Cebu in 2013, the only building that sustained major damage was Gwen Garcia’s expensive Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) built in 2006. The CICC was only of medium height. Cebu City had numerous high towers, but not one of them was damaged. In 2016, Gwen Garcia faced 11 counts of graft for the construction of the CICC, but the charges were dismissed by the Ombudsman in 2020.

Gwen Garcia’s sense of entitlement was shattered when Pam Baricuatro, a relatively unknown political neophyte, defeated her for the governorship in a landslide win in the last election. Baricuatro was a close friend of Dr. Rowena Burden who had been highly critical on social media of Gwen Garcia’s policies, and who died in 2023 of a heart attack while dealing with cyberlibel cases filed against her by Garcia. Because of what happened to her good friend, Baricuatro became motivated to run against Garcia although she did not think that she could win.

When the election results came in, Gwen Garcia refused to accept them and said she would not go down from the Capitol. She had truly felt entitled to the post!

Meanwhile, her cousin Raymond Garcia, mayor of Cebu City, lost to Nestor Archival, a well-known environmental activist who, in the words of Margot Osmeña, “walks the talk.” Raymond Garcia’s huge billboards and posters were all over the city while Archival and his running mate Tommy Osmeña had just a few posters. Archival’s environmental advocacies will be good for Cebu City which is short of water from its dry mountains. Tommy Osmeña, as former mayor, was good for Cebu City’s economy.

Pam Baricuatro has been active in helping the poor, long before she became a politician. She set up a food bank, one of only two in the country. The food bank collects donations of food from various donors and distributes them to the poor. With funding from her wealthy husband, a foreigner, she also set up Simply Share, an NGO that helps feed the hungry. Simply Share donates rice to KidsLife Foundation which provides daycare services to street children in Cebu. Governor Baricuatro will not have an easy job. Her Vice-governor and all of the 10 board members are Gwen Garcia’s people. But she plans to find ways to win their cooperation to help the people of Cebu province, especially the poor, in improving their health and providing jobs and food.

There seems to be new hope for Cebuanos. After long years of poor services by the prosperous Garcia political dynasty, there is optimism and gratitude for the restoration of good sense and independence of Cebu voters. Hopefully, poverty and hunger will be reduced under newly elected leaders.

Teresa S. Abesamis has been a development management, social and political marketing consultant for over 20 years.

tsabesamis0114@yahoo.com