“The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of
being unacceptable.” Paul Tillich
By
Alex P. Vidal
DEBATES are ongoing whether it is proper to declare
Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada, a private person, as persona non grata (unacceptable
person) even if he is not a diplomat.
Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and some city
councilors think they won’t sound ridiculous if they push through with the plan
as they cited several cases involving actors, actresses and other personalities
in other cities and provinces in the country not connected with government but were
also declared persona non grata for offending the local officials and the
people.
City officials are up in arms against the former Iloilo
provincial administrator for calling Iloilo “a bird’s nest of corruption”
during the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing for the alleged overpriced
P700-million Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) project in Iloilo City November 13.
They want Mejorada to pay dearly for the “humiliation”
he has brought the Ilonggos.
DIPLOMATS
But some lawyers, including Mejorada, insist only
disgraced diplomats are declared persona non grata by their host countries
before they are expelled.
Mabilog and the city council proponents think otherwise,
thus they plan to slap Mejorada with the draconian measure in a resolution
soon.
Even if they won’t use the words persona non grata, the
city officials can always express their displeasure toward Mejorada in other
means.
Like a simple resolution detailing why they don’t want
to see the face of Mejorada in Iloilo City again.
They should take the cue from the Iloilo business
leaders, who signed a strongly-worded manifesto of support for Senate President
Franklin Drilon days before the hearing in the Senate blue ribbon committee
last week.
The manifesto was read in the tri-media, including the
social media and message sent.
What will happen to an individual—diplomat or not-who is
declared persona non grata?
Or severely reprimanded in a city council resolution?
Will the label deny him of his rights to open a
legitimate business in the place where he was pilloried?
TAG
Will the tag disqualify him from participating in the
electoral processes in the place where he was given the severe dressing down?
Will the resolution affect his economic well-being and
future employment opportunities both in the government and private sectors?
Better still, will the move of the city council affect
Mejorada politically if he has plans to run for public office in the future?
In terms of name-recall, Mejorada now has the edge given
the gargantuan publicity mileage he amassed in the nationally televised “live”
senate inquiry which became a national topic for a while.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Plus the social media which gave Mejorada the boundless
leverage to lash back at his adversaries and disseminate further his case
against Drilon, et al in the wider scale even after the first session of the
senate hearing (we understand there are more scheduled hearings to come unless
terminated).
Mejorada can only shelve the persona non grata resolution
and vindicate himself if he runs and wins in the 2016 elections.
If he has secured a mandate, that means the people are
not anymore angry with him, or have forgiven him for whatever transgression they think
he has committed.
That means he is not really unacceptable as what his
city hall tormentors want to tell the public.
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