SunStar
CEBU EXPLAINER: Atty. Oaminal’s Kurakot Gang, Mabatid’s ‘ungo’ of City Hall: unfair, wicked charges if not true
CEBU. (Clockwise) Cebu City Councilor Prisca Nina Mabatid, Atty. Clarence Paul Oaminal, and the Cebu City Hall. (File photos/ Clarence Paul Oaminal s Facebook page)
+ February 24, 2021 FIRST, there was Cebu City Councilor Prisca Nina Mabatid who in a Facebook post of February 6 and later interviews with media accused an unelected and un-appointed person of “dictating” councilors and other officials at City Hall.
Mabatid said an “ungo” or witch was actually running affairs in the city government, deciding on purchases of anti-Covid supplies and hiring and firing of employees. The figurative use of witchery suggested the councilor’s impression that the alleged villain looks like a witch and probably exhibits as much greed on his prey.
SunStar
+ February 08, 2021 Niña Mabatid was a reluctant candidate in 2019. Before the start of the campaign period, she called then Vice Mayor Edgar Labella to inform him of her intention to withdraw her certificate of candidacy for Cebu City councilor because she was affected by the intrigues that she had been hearing. Labella was in the United States at that time and because of the time difference, he practically lost an entire night’s sleep trying to persuade his candidate to stay in the ticket.
She did. But the talks that she would be junked by her party mates must have left an indelible mark in her so that during the campaign, she was mostly on her own, to the displeasure of many other members of the Barug slate. Her style proved to be effective as she won handily, placing second behind veteran Nestor Archival in the north district. But at a steep cost: she lost whatever goodwill in a number of her fellow PDP Barug candidates, especially those who lost.