Two elections past, they were the best of friends. Now, they become worst enemies. Not too long ago, the sight of City Mayor Dan Neri Lim and City Councilor Zenaido ”Djingo” Rama parting ways was unthinkable. In fact, the past two elections (2004 and 2007) saw them virtual inseparable duo. They were running mates in the 2004 polls and Rama ran under Lim's ticket in the May 2007 electoral battle. Rama won.

Their relationship started to turn sour when Rama chose to veer away from the Lim camp shortly after he was elected city councilor under Lim's tutelage. The act did not sit well with Lim. Thus, started a cat and mouse spectacle that culminated into a break up of a long nurtured friendship. Some people at first thought that it was just a “lover's quarrel”. But as time went by, the spat became worst that reconciliation was fast becoming an impossible dream.

The Lim-Rama break-up blew up in the open Friday when Mayor Lim

saw for himself how Rama parked his Pajero. In full view of city hall kibitzers, Lim ordered the transfer of Rama's car which was usually parked in the canopied part of the city hall's entrance. During happier times. Rama, throwing all cautions to the wind, confidently parked his vehicle in the same shaded part of the city hall entrance just a meter away from the building's stairway. Until last Friday afternoon. When he saw the way the vehicle was parked, Lim said he ordered the removal of Rama's car in its usual parking area because it hampered the free flow of pedestrian traffic to and from the city hall entrance. This explained why he lost no time in looking for the car's driver and told him to park it at the city hall's designated parking area. As of press time, it was not immediately ascertained what was Rama's reaction to Lim's tirades about the way he appropriated the city hall entrance as his own parking lot.