Joe III's 'benefit' from Mabilog's ouster

"Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."
--Mao Zedong

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Political enemies of "dismissed" Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog have been warned that the latter's "early" exit from the city hall may not be favorable if they aspire to run for Mabilog's position in 2019.
If Mabilog is ousted this early, his political enemies can no longer take potshots at Mabilog's faults--real or imagined.
There will be no more "Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog" who will absorb their brickbats and admonishment.
As challengers, they need someone in power to blame for every mess in government. Someone in power must look bad so that the challengers will look good. Politics 101.
One sure way to score pogi points to the electorate.
In order to gain momentum and stay afloat in the scramble for publicity, politicians must squabble. Every animosity becomes news. Every news is publicity.
Publicity quickly helps the ascension of any aspiring politician to power.

NOISE

To stay in the possible winning column, politicians or aspiring candidates, for that matter, must make a noise--a lot of noise; in fact, if the elections are decided through name-recall like the Philippines' decrepit system.
In Mabilog's absence, they will have no choice but aim their guns at the accidental villain, acting Mayor Jose "Joe III" Espinosa III.
Challengers need to stir the hornet's nest and act like do-gooders from time to time to get public attention.
But what if Joe III will reign like Marcus Aurelius and herald Iloilo City to its own version of Pax Romana?
What if Joe III will help catapult Iloilo City in the totem pole of greatness in the remaining 19 months (granting that Mabilog can't secure a Temporary Restraining Order from the Court of Appeals against the Ombudsman's decision to dismiss him) as acting city mayor?

SIGNS

At this early, Joe III has been showing exhilarating signs of infallibility.
He now talks less and his best press releases have become his own performances and increasing public visibility.
Joe III, a shoo-in candidate in 2019, has refused to say a word about Mabilog's predicament like his chief political Maharishi, Rep. Jerry P. Trenas.
Like a stoic, Joe III is on a roll and manages the affairs of the city from the board room to the villages' inner purlieus.
If they bash fizzy Joe III merely to attract media attention, the electorate will easily get the message right: the bashers are going gung-ho at all costs to malign a performer.
Everything will boomerang.
Instead of sending a fresh face to the city mayor's office in 2019, they will have to agonize watching Joe III being given a fresh and unadulterated mandate as newly elected city mayor.