Osmeña blasts Archival for ‘playing it safe’ over ‘WPS Victory Day’ celeb

Local

CEBU City Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña blasted Mayor Nestor Archival for “playing it safe” amid a growing diplomatic rift triggered by a Chinese Consulate protest against the city’s declaration of July 12 as “West Philippine Sea (WPS) Victory Day.”

In an interview on Monday, July 13, Osmeña rebuked the chief executive's cautious stance, contrasting it with the Cebu City Council's decisive move to back the resolution.

"I'm very proud of the City Council. Unfortunately, our mayor's playing it safe. Doesn't like to be here. Doesn't like to be identified," Osmeña said.

"I'm not that kind. I take a stand. We have to protect our own, and we have to be very careful that opportunities are not being exploited to take advantage of our tolerance. So I'm not tolerating anything."

The local political friction escalated on the same day Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. visited Cebu City Hall, commending the local government for standing its ground against foreign interference.

Osmeña revealed that his office has long enforced a strict policy of ignoring the Chinese Consulate in Cebu, tracing his defiance back to an incident during his earlier tenure as mayor.

According to Osmeña, after he attended a "Double Ten" celebration—Taiwan’s national day—at the Cebu Coliseum, the Chinese Consul sent him a letter warning him against violating the One China policy, followed by a second letter berating his attendance.

"I received a letter from the Chinese Consul warning me not to attend that meeting. I said, 'Actually, tapos na (it's already over).' So I threw the letter in the wastebasket," Osmeña said.

"Ever since that time... I put the Chinese Consul on our blacklist. We're not scared of anyone. We don't look down at them; they should not look down at us."

The vice mayor praised the City Council for showing similar resolve through a resolution authored by Councilor Paul Labra.

The brewing diplomatic row also caught national attention.

Attending the City Hall flag-raising ceremony on Monday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2016 Arbitral Award, Teodoro lauded Cebu’s assertiveness.

The event, themed “Dekada ng Batas, Hindi Dahas” (A Decade of Law, Not Force), marked the landmark ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that invalidated China’s expansive maritime claims.

Teodoro emphasized that Cebu's stance sends a powerful message from the center of the archipelago, warning that failing to defend local measures could embolden foreign entities to challenge the country's archipelagic doctrine and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

"It is very heartwarming that Cebu stood up in the face of a direct provocation by foreign officials here. And they stood their ground. That is admirable and praiseworthy," Teodoro said.

The friction stems from a formal diplomatic note sent by the Chinese Consulate General in Cebu protesting Labra’s resolution.

The Chinese mission reiterated Beijing’s position that the 2016 arbitral ruling is “illegal, null and void.”

Aside from creating a local observance, the city resolution also urges Congress to institutionalize July 12 as a nationwide “West Philippine Sea Victory Day.”

Faced with the diplomatic protest, Archival chose to defer any immediate counteractions, stating last Friday that he must first thoroughly review the documents forwarded to his office.

"For now, what I will do is look into these documents that have reached my office," Archival told reporters in Cebuano.

"At the moment, I cannot comment until I see the substance of the resolution."

Despite the swift pushback from defense officials and maritime experts against Beijing's narrative, Archival maintained that his administration's priority is diplomacy.

"But for me, we’d like to maintain a good relationship with everybody," the mayor added.

The executive’s careful maneuvering has drawn sharp criticism from domestic security experts and local officials alike.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, Commodore Jay Tarriela, previously accused China of overt meddling in local governance, while the Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs reminded stakeholders that the 2016 arbitral victory remains final, binding, and beyond local diplomatic compromise.(TGP)