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[av_heading tag=’h3′ padding=’10’ heading=’ PEOPLE POWWOW | Looking through Mabilog’s political gambit’ color=” style=’blockquote modern-quote’ custom_font=” size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ custom_class=”]
BY HERBERT VEGO
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Sunday, June 11, 2017
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METHINKS that Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog had thought long and hard before resigning from the Liberal Party (LP). What would it profit him to abandon the group that had catapulted him to the highest local post in Iloilo City?
Certainly, he did not do it for nothing. It was a political gambit aimed at regaining whatever power he had lost following the defeat of LP presidential candidate Mar Roxas and the rise of President Rodrigo Duterte. He had probably hoped to leapfrog to the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino –Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), knowing that Cong. Jerry Treñas had done just like that.
Was it to appease Duterte that he had been speaking well of him, and throwing the horizontal fist that is now known as the “Duterte salute”? Was he thinking that by leaving LP, he would easily find a niche in PDP-Laban? Aside from Treñas, many other LP stalwarts have done it.
Alas, if he was thinking along that line, then he must have forgotten the number of times that Duterte publicly named him “cousin” and “coddler” of the slain suspected drug lord Melvin Odicta. No way would Duterte ever welcome him to the party.
Nevertheless the mayor would still like to think that the President would see his “truth” based on his often-quoted Bible verse: “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open” (Luke 8:17).
The city councilors and all the rest identified with Mabilog have opted to “wait and see”, knowing that he still commands the trust and confidence of the Ilonggos. He is still the most sought-after guest speaker in public and private gatherings in the city.
It hardly matters that there appears “no way” for Duterte to stop humiliating the mayor of the most “shabulized” city in the Philippines.
Fortunately for Mabilog, the Ilonggos do not take the President’s generalized depiction kindly. They know that his dislike for Duterte is not anchored on the illegal drug problem. It’s because the President can’t forget that one night in May 2016 when, as presidential candidate, he was not allowed to hold his rally at Freedom Grandstand but was diverted to the less glamorous La Paz Plaza.
There is no indication in the horizon that a Duterte “point man” – initially reported to be Councilor Jeffrey Ganzon – would rise to eventually change the city’s political landscape. Remember guys that Ganzon, who had run but lost for vice mayor in 2013, ran as LP’s guest candidate for councilor in 2016 for no other reason than “to be sure of winning.”
As of today, the “graduating” mayor remains the most formidable bet for congressman in 2019; and Congressman Treñas, despite his announcement to retire from politics, for mayor.
No political analysts today could fathom what realignments might shape up along the path of the 2019 local elections. They could only agree that conciliation between the vindictive Duterte and the supplicating Mabilog would be next to impossible.
In such a scenario, the mayor would be wise to regroup his old allies and discover new ones in order to organize a strong opposition. If he can’t put himself in the shoes of that leader, then he’d better pivot to private life. If I guess right, that’s what his wife Marivic and their two kids wish him to do. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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