Could Ynion have stood to defend Mayor Mabilog?

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
 --Plato

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- We are now tempted to think that one of the biggest mistakes committed by the Ilonggos was they did not elect businessman and journalist Rommel Ynion when he wanted to serve as city councilor in 2016.
If Ynion, a vocal and frank person, were member of the city council when "the most shabulized city" furor erupted, would he just collect his salary and fart in silence while attending the regular sessions?
By being part of the city government, Ynion would be duty-bound to speak out his mind and contribute in the debates that involved the Ilonggo heritage, values, religion, education, and morality.
Could he have stood to defend erstwhile foe Mabilog when the latter was tagged as coddler of narcotics? No one can tell.
But definitely, he isn't the type who will kick someone already crawling on all four, bloodied and bruised.

ARROW

Ynion would have aimed his arrow at Mabilog over local issues, or on matters that affected governance and services to the hoi polloi; or, he could take potshots at some of Mabilog's deals and projects in the level of check and balance as an opposition. At least that's his campaign promise.
Assuming he was now a city councilor and a PDP-Laban stalwart to boot, but did not believe the President's tag on Mabilog as coddler of drug traffickers lock, stock, and barrel, Ynion could distance himself from the issue for the sake of delicadeza, or eschewed Mabilog (but not endeavor to help put his life at risk) so as not to displease the most powerful man in Malacanang. 
Although Ynion lost to Mabilog in the 2013. mayoral contest, he gamely swallowed his pride to gun for a seat in the local legislative body instead of fortifying his forces for a rematch with reelectionist Mabilog.
After the 2013 debacle, Ynion probably became a pragmatist and did not want to commit the blunder made by other aspirants for city mayor who suffered two consecutive setbacks in two consecutive elections to the incumbent.

SLATE

Even if Ynion is in the other side of the political fence, he and Mabilog have their own 38th Parallel, a focal point they maintained mutually but unofficially after the fierce 2013 rivalry.
Mabilog's Liberal Party (LP) slate in Iloilo City didn't sweep the race in the city council in 2016 after opposition reelectionists Joshua Alim and Plaridel Nava secured the two slots.
But, que horror, where was Ynion? Having been a prominent participant in the previous elections' major league, he was supposed to smoothly walk away with a spot in the top five. That's logical and palatable.
But local politics has always been cruel and truculent.
Either Ynion elected not to campaign ferociously, or the Ilonggos were only amnesiac that they couldn't appreciate a nibble of the man's economic, social, and political platforms when he was aspiring for city mayor three years earlier.
It's water under the bridge at any rate.