ANALYSIS | Tomas Osmena as Julius Caesar

For many people, Tomas and Joy Young's loss didn't add up. For them, last election's results were erratic, wild, inconsistent.

Ironically, the results, except for that of the position of mayor and vice mayor, are consistent with previous Cebu City elections. BOPK as in elections past, swept the congressional race for the city's two districts. It also almost swept the council race. The fact that four of the opposition bets won is also consistent with the results when Alvin ran for reelection against Tomas. Team Rama's performance mimic too that of Kusug in elections past.

What was abnormal as far as BOPK is concerned was the defeat of its mayoral and vice mayoral bets. The party in all the elections it participated in the past delivered consistent results for its entire slate. But this time, something untoward happened. And BOPK is groping for answers.

The results at a glance would mean within BOPK, some junking of candidates happened involving no less than the party head. For how else would you explain the victory of almost everyone except for the standard bearer?

If so, the junking didn't come from the party head himself who would be in the position to make such order for that would be illogical. It could have come from someone else, equally influential, someone outside BOPK perhaps, working inside, loosening screws, cutting wires within the BOPK machinery enough to upset the election results. For sure, those involved won't tell surveys their choices and schemes.

Is Tomas losing control over his own party? If he is, filing an election protest is an exercise in futility. It's  like cutting the wrong tree.  Like Caesar, he may have to ask the difficult question, Et tu, Brute?