CEBU DAILY NEWS | TUESDAY, 6 APRIL 2010 Q & A Special Page 4This series on local candidates, starting with Cebu City mayoralty

bets,aims to help readers decide whom to vote for on May 10.Next candidate: Alvin Garcia

Bir thday

R esidence

Fa m i l y

Educ ation

Co nt rove r s y

Jan. 15, 1954

Gorordo Ave., Camputhaw, Cebu City

Separated from husband Luis Jalandoni

Children: Denise Patricia, Joanna Natividad,and Javier Alejandro

Business Management degree from LoyolaMarymount University, Los Angeles Califor-nia

Is open about her friendship with and sup-port for Gov. Gwen Garcia’s family, who is atodds with Mayor Osmeña.

QUICK FACTS

TEXT Siloy at 0906-5023021Email cdnfeedback

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Do you have a question for anyof the aspirants?

GEORGIA 05

GEORGIA OSMEÑA, Go Cebumayoralty candidate,speaks her mind on the CebuCity that she envisions: abetter domestic and globaltrade and tourism hub withplenty of water, ample in-frastructure and effectivelymanaged waste.

Georgia eyesbetter servicesfor a ‘prouder’Cebu City

Georgia dela Rama Osmeñasays she wants to do a bet-ter job of running Cebu

City than her brother’s team.Some basic services have not

been given importance like streetrepair, garbage collection, and wa-ter supply, says the 56-year-old re-al estate broker.

Outspoken and strongwilled,the youngest sister in the Osmeñabrood is seeking election for thefirst time.

“It’s in the blood,” she said inSeptember 2009 when she final-ized her decision that “now is thebest time for me to come in... inbetween the senior citizens and allthe nephews.”

While she doesn’t have the en-dorsement of elder brother MayorTomas Osmeña and is running asan independent, she hopes to stirloyal Osmeñistas, who rememberthe legacy of public servce of theirlate father “Serging,” Cebu City’slegendary mayor, and grandfatherD o n S e r g i o , aCom m onwe a l t hpre s i den t .

E d u c a t e d i nManila, New Yorkand California, shebecame a licensedreal estate broker inthe United States and was a directorof Keystone Trading Company, theholding company of the Dollarsand Cents chain of stores.

After her father died in the USin 1984, she returned to thePhilippines. She married Negrosbusinessman Luis Jalandoni in1987 in Cebu City. The couple lat-er separated and a custody battleover their three children made theheadlines when she filed kidnap-ping charges against her spouseand school officials. The episodealso caused a rift between Georgiaand sister-in-law Margot Osmeña,whose driver had fetched the kidsfrom school and brought them totheir father. The kids were re-turned after several months ofanxious waiting.

Today, with the children allgrown, Georgia takes on a a newchallenge as leader of her owngroup “Go Cebu” with a running-mate and complete slate of coun-cilor candidates.

She is president of GRO Realty,Inc. and an active member of theCebu Realtor's Board where she’sthe auditor. She is also member of

the Philippine Association of RealEstate Boards.

How do you size up your op-p onent?

Mike Rama is the puppet ofMayor Tomas. He has not provenhis capability to lead and manageCebu City’s administration ablyduring his 18 years in office. Hehas no backbone and decision-making ability. A Mike Rama may-oralty will simply be an extensionof what we have today. It is timefor change. Alvin Garcia has a his-tory of losing twice. Voters don’tlike voting for losers.

Wh a t a r e yo u r c a m p a i g nstrateg ies?

Hard work, group dynamics,organization, personal one-on-one approach, sincerity and noover-promising .

Who among your opponentsdo you consider your strongest?

I consider myself as my strongestopponent principal-ly due to campaignfunds limitation. Idon’t consider eitherone of them strongenough to over-c o m e t h e “ O s-m e ñ i s t a s .”

How do you topple a well-en-trenched political machinery?

With organization, honesty,sincerity and plain hard work.

How will you work with thosefrom outside your party who willbe elected to serve with you?

I will enlist all electees to workclosely with me as one team for thegood of Cebu. I will be a mayor forall Cebuanos. I will uphold theideals of my father, Serging, for abeautiful, progressive, peacefuland proud Cebu city.

What do you plan to accomplishin your first 100 days in office?

Immediate delivery of basic ser-vices such as water supply, wastemanagement, road repair, light upall thoroughfare, ease traffic con-gestion, set up socialized housingareas for informal dwellers, reha-bilitate/restore unsightly buildingsin “old parts of Cebu,” clear side-walks, improve police visibilityand capability, modernize CityHall services like computerized taxassessment and processing, initiatecommunity/barangay self-help

brigades for cleanliness, smallbusiness and disaster responsepreparedness, and implementpolicies to make City hall morebusiness friendly to open up Ce-bu City to local and internationalinvest ments.

What are the top three prob-lems plaguing the city?

Water, garbage management,city infrastructure.

How do you plan to solvethese?

By hiring non-politician pro-fessional management consul-

tants and execution teams whocan implement action programsthat have been proven and testedin more progressive cities bothhere and abroad.

What is your vision for the city?To make Cebu city the proud

“Queen City of the South” oncemore the way it was during thelifetime of my father, Serging, andto make it the tourism and busi-ness hub of the south. I will dothis by forging partnerships in de-velopment from the private sectorand provide incentives for local

and international investors.

What policies, pro-grams of the present ad-ministration do you planto carry out if elected in-to office?

None that I can thinkof. I want to change mostit because they don’t workand are so pitifully lackingin delivery of basic ser-vices and in fulfilling theexpectations of the Ce-buano people.

Where do you see Ce-bu City in three years?

The most progressivecity of the Philippines, thetop tourist destination forfore ig n and domest ictourists and the fastest-growing business hub out-side of Metro Manila.

How will you solve Ce-bu City's water crisis?

I will engage experi-enced local and interna-tional professionals tosubmit proposals for im-mediate action, and coor-dinate with national gov-ernment bodies tasked tooversee the developmentof water availability anddelivery, like LWUA (LocalWaterworks Utilities Asso-ciat ion).

We have no more forests.Our uplands appear sold todevelopers, we have very fewparks, and the ones we haveare not lush.

Do you plan to do any-thing about this?

I will task the publicand private schools to co-ordinate with both privateand public environmentalbodies to implement amass ive t ree-plant ingthroughout the City, and