Eduardo "Edu" Roa Rama Jr. (born December 2, 1978) is a Filipino politician and businessman currently serving as the Representative of Cebu City's 2nd (South) district since 2022. He previously served as Cebu City councilor from 2004 to 2013, and again from 2016 to 2022.

Early life and education

Rama was born on December 2, 1978 to Eduardo "Eddie" Lopez Rama Sr. and Thelma Bacan Roa. Eddie served as Governor (1988–1995) and Congressman (1995-1998) of Agusan del Norte, and was the older brother of former Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama.

Rama completed his secondary education at Sacred Heart School – Ateneo de Cebu, and his bachelor's degree in business administration at the British Centre for International Education (CIE) in 2004.

Political career Cebu City Council (2004–2013)

Rama first entered public office at 25 years old as a city councilor from Cebu City's 2nd (South) district in 2004, then a member of the Bando Osmeña – Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) led by Mayor Tomas Osmeña. He was re-elected to a second and third term in 2007 and 2010, respectively, with BOPK holding all council positions.

During the 12th Sangguniang Panlungsod (2010–2013) and Rama's third term, he served as chair of the council's committee on services, which had oversight of city departments such as the General Services Office.

Following the October 15, 2012 earthquake that damaged the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), Rama and City Chief Legal Officer Gerone Castillo met with regional officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to discuss the ownership of the BFP-7 property that the city was using as a temporary facility for the CCMC. The city and BFP were engaged in a legal dispute over the property's ownership, exacerbated by the lack of clear land titles and supporting documents.

It was during Rama's third term (2010–2013) that Mike Rama bolted BOPK and the Liberal Party and later formed Team Rama to challenge Osmeña and BOPK in the 2013 elections. Among the BOPK members and officials who defected to Team Rama were current and former city councilors Edu Rama, Jose "Joey" Daluz III, Edwin Jagmoc, Sylvan "Jack" Jakosalem, future vice mayor and mayor Edgardo Labella, and Jocelyn "Joy" Pesquera.

Hiatus from elected office (2013–2016) Rama left office at the end of his third term on June 30, 2013, due to term limits and not running for another elective position. He was appointed as head of the city's Barangay Affairs Office (BAO) under the administration of his uncle, re-elected Mayor Mike Rama.

In March 2014, Rama was tasked by Mayor Mike Rama to ensure the presence of street lights in Barangay Labangon after the latter ordered the removal of a PHP 300,000 (USD 5,400) center island and street lighting project that was funded by the Barangay. Mayor Rama was later suspended by the Office of the President of the Philippines for 60 days due to abuse of power.

On January 27, 2015, Rama announced the death of his uncle (father's first cousin), Basak San Nicolas Barangay Captain and former city councilor George R. Rama, who died the previous day due to complications from pneumonia and sepsis. Rama made the public announcement on behalf of his family, the Rama clan.

Rama filed his candidacy for city councilor anew on October 16, 2015, now under his uncle's UNA-affiliated Partido Panaghiusa–Team Rama lineup for the 2016 Cebu City local elections. This resulted in Rama's ipso facto resignation as Cebu City BAO head, as Philippine law deems any appointive government official or employee as having resigned automatically upon filing their candidacy for elective office.

Return to the council (2016–2022) Following the 2016 elections, Mike Rama lost re-election as mayor, while Vice Mayor Labella successfully defended his seat and the younger Rama returned to the council as part of a new BARUG majority. During the 14th Sangguniang Panlungsod (2016–2019), Rama served as Presiding officer pro tempore, as well as chair of the council committees on Information and Communication Technology and Public Services. After losing his chairmanships after BOPK secured he council majority mid-term, Rama once again became Presiding officer pro tempore in July 2020, also regaining his former committee chair posts in addition to the social services committee.

AS ICT committee chair, Rama also served as chair of the Information and Communication Technology Business Process Management (ICT-BPM) Council and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development (MSMED) Council. In this capacity, he handled the city's Near-Hire Program and Cebu City Call Center Program, which his office claims helped over 2,000 jobseekers find employment in the city's call centers.

Rama and a majority of Team Rama's (now renamed Partido Barug, or BARUG) officials switched national political parties from UNA to PDP-Laban, the new ruling party led by President Rodrigo Duterte, on August 27, 2016. Former Mayor Mike Rama was excluded from the induction of new PDP-Laban members due to his then-inclusion on Duterte's narco-list, with then-House Speaker and PDP-Laban Secretary General Pantaleon Alvarez commenting that "the crime of one [is] not the fault [of] all."

On January 9, 2017, Rama was one of nine opposition BARUG councilors who voted for a resolution by Councilor Joey Daluz III to override Osmeña's line item veto of the city government's PHP 7.2 billion 2017 annual budget. Osmeña vetoed over 15 items under budget ordinances 2472 and 2471, saying they restricted his authority as mayor to manage the affairs of the City. The resolution failed to gather the twelve votes needed to override the mayor's veto.

In August 2017, Rama responded to questioning from then-majority floor leader Margot Osmeña (BOPK) over pledges for the construction of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) by saying that the suspension of work on the CCMC after Mayor Osmeña returned to office the previous year discouraged further donations.

Following the murder of former Ermita barangay captain and BARUG councilorial candidate Felicismo "Imok" Rupinta in November 2017, Rama joined Vice Mayor Labella and several other opposition councilors who wore black armbands and passed a city resolution condemning Mayor Osmeña for his statements accusing the late Rupinta of being a drug protector.

In February 2019, Rama was one of the seven BARUG councilors who sought and failed to halt the PHP 18 billion (USD 344.9 million) Kawit Island project in the South Road Properties which later resulted in Nustar Resort and Casino. The Regional Trial Court Branch 21, rather than granting the councilors' petition, referred the case for mediation. Osmeña welcomed the development, saying that the project was open to a Swiss challenge for months and that it would infuse billions into the city's economy.

2019 elections and fifth council term

On October 17, 2018, Rama and other BARUG members filed their candidacies for the 2019 elections. Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, term-limited in his position, ran for mayor, while Mike Rama ran for vice mayor. Rama, along with a mix of candidates from BARUG and BOPK, was endorsed by the Iglesia Ni Cristo, a sect controversial for its bloc-voting and legal issues.

BARUG won the May 13, 2019 elections decisively, with Labella unseating Osmeña, Mike Rama returning as vice mayor for a fourth term, and Rama joining a BARUG council majority with nine of sixteen seats. Observers attributed BARUG's electoral success partly to a high level of involvement by President Duterte in favor of BARUG and Labella, which included sustained attacks on Osmeña and BOPK. The winning candidates were proclaimed over two-day period following election night, with the delay due to technical issues.

In August 2019, the council placed Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City under a state of calamity due to sewage defects in the city's two jails that have persisted since 2015. Rama joined a council task force formed to address problem, chaired by Councilor Nestor Archival.

COVID-19 pandemic In April 2020, Rama, as chair of the council's Committee on Information Technology (IT), requested the city government to investigate the alleged "subhuman" living conditions of Amazon contractors in Teleperformance's Cebu IT Park offices. The issue went viral after the British newspaper Financial Times (FT) published an exposé showing hundreds of employees having to sleep on floors and gym equipment due to Amazon contracts stipulating that all work must be done on-site, in violation of a supposed promise of decent accommodations for the employees and on the pain of termination. A copy of an employee contract seen by the FT showed that employees who spoke to the media would be held legally liable for "damages" of at least PHP 500,000 (USD 10,317), which forced employees to aid the investigation anonymously. Industry executive Wilfredo Sa-a Jr., managing director of the Cebu City Information Technology-Business Process Management Organization (IT-BPMO)—a business association of the city's IT companies—labeled the affair as an "isolated case," to which the national BPO Industry Employees Network responded by saying that similar conditions were happening in call centers all over the country.

The Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported in June 2020 that Rama and Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia facilitated the city's distribution of face masks donated from the private sector.

On October 14, 2020, Rama criticized the construction of the PHP 800 million (USD 15.8 million) Mambaling Underpass along Natalio Bacalso Avenue as a "failure" from the "very beginning" due to persistent flooding. The underpass was supposed to be constructed with a drainage system based those of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on that used flood tunnels and cisterns to avert flooding. However, the drainage system was completely absent from the final project, for which Rama criticized then-2nd (South) District Congressman Rodrigo "Bebot" Abellanosa. A SunStar Cebu article attributed most of the blame to the project implementor, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), while also criticizing the city government (including Rama), as well as Abellanosa for oversight failures.

Rama joined the council's ad hoc committee for helping Mayor Labella "refocus and streamline" the city's 2021 annual budget. The committee was created by Vice Mayor Mike Rama in December 2020, with Councilors Rama, Garcia, and Philip Zafra from the BARUG majority and Councilors Archival, Dizon, Franklyn Ong, and Ouano-Japson from the BOPK minority. A SunStar Cebu editorial described the budget as "undeniably an election budget" due to the upcoming 2022 elections.

On March 4, 2021, the city government gave new firetrucks to Barangays Duljo Fatima, Calamba, San Roque and San Jose, which previously lacked firetrucks of their own. Duljo Fatima Barangay Captain Elmer Abella, in an interview with PhilSTAR, thanked Rama as one of the city officials who lobbied for the Barangays to receive firetrucks.

In June 2021, Rama, as chair of the council's committee on public services, pushed for at least three more garbage transfer stations across the city due to congestion and lack of capacity at the current garbage transfer station in Barangay Inayawan.