Alvin Garcia

Alvin Biaño Garcia (born June 29, 1946) is a Filipino politician and lawyer who served twice as the Mayor of Cebu City from 1995 to 1998 and from 1998 to 2001. He served as the vice mayor of the said city from 1988 to 1995 alongside the mayor at the time: Tomas Osmeña. He is also the founder of Kugi Uswag Sugbo (KUSUG), a local political party based in Cebu City. Garcia is the son of Jesus Paras Garcia and Severiana Biaño. His father is the brother of former Cebu Governor Pablo Paras Garcia making him the cousin of current governor Gwendolyn Garcia. He was admitted to the Philippine Bar on March 10, 1971. He later founded the J.P. Garcia & Associates along with his brother, Jesus Jr. Garcia started his political career as vice mayor to Tomas Osmeña in 1988. Both served for two consecutive terms until Osmeña gave way to Garcia to run as mayor in the 1995 elections. He also served as president of the Vice Mayors' League of the Philippines from 1992 to 1995. He was first elected as mayor in 1995. He went on to serve for two terms until 2001 when he was defeated by Osmeña, his political mentor, who challenged him in the 2001 elections. The defeat of the Bando Osmeña – Pundok Kauswagan (BO–PK) candidate in the local councilors league election started the rift between Garcia and Osmeña which was then followed by the latter's public criticisms. In the 2004 elections, Garcia sought to reclaim his old post as mayor but was defeated again by then mayor Osmeña by almost 40,000 votes. He declined to run for the same position in the 2007 elections but ran in the 2010 elections after expressing confidence in the automated elections. He was once again defeated but this time by then vice mayor Michael Rama who was chosen by Osmeña to succeed him. When Rama bolted Osmeña's BO–PK group in 2011 and sought re-election as mayor, Garcia and his group KUSUG endorsed him, Edgardo Labella as vice mayor, Annabelle Rama as 1st district representative and Aristotle Batuhan as 2nd district representative.