BY ALECKS P. PABICO
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

CEBU CITY — This bustling metropolis in central Philippines used to be the heart of Osmeña country, the home of a political clan that at one time even managed to wield power from within Malacañang. But in the last two decades, a new family has been gaining considerable political ground in Cebu province. For the past few years, it has also been widely perceived to have Malacañang’s ear. This May, three of its members are seeking public office, and many are betting all three will win their respective electoral contests.

A sweep by the Garcias in May would signal a tectonic shift in Cebu’s political landscape and could establish them as the province’s premier political family. Indeed, the ascendance of the Garcia clan would not only highlight the continuing waning dominance of the Osmeñas in local, if not national, politics. It may also herald the Garcias’ assumption of the role the Osmeñas have traditionally performed: that of deciding the political fate of Cebu, which rivals Manila in economic importance.

For now political observers like Dr. Resil Mojares still think the Osmeñas remain the most dominant family in Cebu. But Mojares says that it would be interesting to see how far the Garcias will go.

That may start getting evident this May. Leading the Garcia clan in the possible election juggernaut is Gwendolyn or "‘Gwen," who is seeking reelection as Cebu governor. The 51-year-old’s immediate predecessor was her own father, Pablo "Pabling" Garcia Sr., who bowed out of local politics in 2004 after serving as governor for three terms. No formidable challenger has come forward to contest the governorship, which makes it likely for Governor Garcia to chalk up yet another electoral victory – assuredly more comfortable than the last one – for her second consecutive three-year term.

Aside from the governor, clan patriarch Pabling is coming out of retirement to run as congressman in Cebu’s second district. Gwen Garcia’s younger brother Pablo John, who serves as her consultant at the Capitol, is also eyeing the congressional seat their father held from 1987 to 1995 in his erstwhile turf, the province’s third district.

Political observers say the possibility of all three Garcias winning their respective electoral contests, though tough, isn’t remote. The 81-year-old Pabling has the edge over a less seasoned opponent, Carmiano Kintanar, who is determined to make an issue out of the ex-governor’s age. An incumbent provincial board member, Carmiano Kintanar is the cousin of Rep. Simeon Kintanar. Now on his third consecutive term, Simeon Kintanar is already barred from seeking reelection and has not declared his intention to seek any position in May.

Pabling’s youngest son is expected to face rough sailing in his bid to become representative of the third district where the undefeated Rep. Antonio Yapha, who is likewise on his last congressional term, is fielding his wife to replace him. The Yaphas, like the Kintanars, enjoy the backing of Cebu’s preeminent political clan of old — no other than the Osmeñas, and in particular former Senator John Henry ‘Sonny’ Osmeña, the Garcias’ most bitter critic. But Osmeña may have already expended his political luster when he failed to win a Senate seat in 2004, ignominiously losing in Cebu and barely making it to 12th place in his own precinct in Camputhaw.

The Garcias, meanwhile, are close to Malacañang, which guarantees privileged access to continued state patronage. Pabling himself does not deny this, although he also says, "This is also true with other leaders in Cebu."

In her frequent visits to the province, President Arroyo has not kept secret her feelings about how she is more at ease with Cebu and its political climate, punctuating this with "a strong province...a model for a strong republic" compliment. Many political observers have read this with the assumption that Arroyo owes her controversial 2004-election victory in part to the Garcias. But Pabling Garcia, who was then Lakas-CMD provincial chairman, rejects the allegations of massive cheating that attended the elections in the province. He argues that despite the bickering among local administration candidates, they all threw their support behind Arroyo while the late Fernando Poe Jr. did not have a serious candidate at the local level to campaign for him.

Like almost anywhere else in the Philippines, clans or dynasties have long dominated Cebu in every sphere of political life — be it town, district, or province. Local families, says British political scientist John Sidel, have entrenched themselves for decades at the municipal level by combining their proprietary wealth with the discretionary powers of the mayor’s office and the state patronage made available by congressional and provincial politicians. At the provincial level, however, Sidel singles out the Osmeñas for remaining the one dynasty at the center of politics in the whole Central Visayan island province throughout most of the last century.

Sidel attributes the longevity of multigeneration dynasties, notably the Cebu City-based Osmeña clan, to their ability to maintain alliances with urban commercial interests and to build a political machine centered in the provincial capital that also radiated out into the province. Beginning with family patriarch Sergio Osmeña Sr. who went on to become President of the Commonwealth from 1944 to 1946, the Osmeñas, says Sidel, enjoyed preeminent status in Cebu by using their "close ties to the urban commercial elite in the city, office-based discretionary powers over the local state apparatus, and linkages to national-level patrons in Manila."

Following in his father’s footsteps, Sergio ‘Serging’ Osmeña Jr. served variously as Cebu provincial governor, Cebu City mayor, congressman of Cebu’s second district, and senator, but failed in his presidential bid to boot out Ferdinand Marcos in 1969.

The Osmeña family’s fortunes began to wane when Marcos imposed martial law in 1972, but third-generation members have been able to revive a modicum of dynastic clout in the post-Marcos era. Serging’s son, Tomas III, is Cebu City’s incumbent mayor, and has already previously won three, including two successive, terms. Another son, Sergio III (Serge), won a Senate seat. A nephew, Emilio Mario ‘Lito’ Osmeña, became governor from 1988 to 1992, though he was unsuccessful in his bid for the presidency in 1998. Another nephew, Sonny Osmeña, was elected congressman and later senator. Sonny Osmeña’s son, John Gregory (John-John), occupied the vice governorship during Pabling Garcia’s last term but placed third to Gwen Garcia and Celestino Martinez Jr., the former congressman of the province’s first district, in the tightly fought 2004 three-way gubernatorial race.

Of present-day Cebu politics, lawyer and political commentator Frank Malilong Jr. remarks, "We used to have an emperor (referring to Sergio Sr.). But now, the province is controlled by several kings who rule over their respective little kingdoms."

Cebu’s six rural districts serve as political and economic spheres of influence over which the following political families have continued to hold sway:

* The Gullases in the first district in the near south.

* The Kintanars in the second district in the west (though the Abineses are still very much around).

* The Garcias who consider the third district at the southern end of the province their bailiwick (though John Osmeña served as congressman for one term).

* The Martinezes in the fourth district in the far north.

* The Duranos in the fifth district near north; and the Ouanos in the sixth district with the first class, highly urbanized city of Mandaue as center.

 (To be continued)