--Johnny Weissmuller
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- With 12 months to go before the 2019 congressional elections in the Philippines, Iloilo City Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III and brother-in-law, Iloilo City Rep. Jerry P. Treñas, are still adamant to disclose their complete line-up.
Their alleged “quarrel” has already bordered on soap opera.
Others swallow the “feud” hook, line and sinker; but some astute analysts think they’re just rerouting the procession which will eventually end up in the church anyway.
Aside from confirming that “I am definitely running in 2019”, Mayor Joe III has continued to keep his followers and critics in suspended terror; the mayor and the congressman have continued to cultivate an air of unpredictability (Law 17 of the 48 Laws of Power).
Although mayoralty aspirant Treñas has revealed his running mate would be Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon, he hasn’t announced his candidate for congressman, a crux that has raised some eyebrows.
Egged by some confused supporters to “stay put” and run for city mayor versus Treñas, Mayor Joe III himself has refused to reveal his political cards for 2019, thus deepening the mystery further.
The million dollar question for Joe III is still: to run for mayor or to run for congressman alongside Treñas and Ganzon?
Their supporters in Iloilo City and abroad want to know.
Impatient and excited Ilonggos are hankering for an honest-to-goodness answer; they want it now, and they want it quick.
But even if we can bring the horses to water, still we can’t force them to drink.
-o0o-
This will give trail horse Councilor Joshua Alim, the most senior among the incumbent oppositions in the city council, the opportunity to woo the Ilonggos and unveil his intention to run for the position to be vacated by Treñas.
Now that Alim has secured the support of businessman and former mayoral candidate Rommel Ynion and probably the Gonzalez political clan, led by matriarch Dr. Pacita Trinidad Gonzalez, he can be a sentimental favorite if he announces his bid soon.
While the Joe III-Treñas-Ganzon camp dilly-dallies on the disclosure of its ticket in the major positions, Alim may start barnstorming the metropolis’ 180 barangays where some of the newly elected officials are fresh faces and incorruptible.
In terms of political upset, Alim may use 1992 political neophyte Rafael “Paeng” Lopez-Vito as a model and rallying point.
Even before then semi-retired former senator Rodolfo “Roding” Ganzon announced his intention to run for congressman in the city’s lone district, Lopez-Vito, a lawyer and a political nobody, was already literally painting the town red, announcing to all and sundry he was running for congressman even months before the start of election season.
Nobody gave the “elite” Lopez-Vito a slim chance to bring down the vastly mighty Ganzon, but the shocking defeat of formerly one of the country’s much-heralded lawmakers in the class of Ferdinand Marcos, Jovito Salonga and Ninoy Aquino to a “wet-behind-the-ears” Lopez-Vito became a hot and serious topic in political science classes for more than two decades.
-o0o-
Alim, 53, is one of the only few Iloilo City officials--past and incumbent--who is consistent in his crusade against Panay Electric Company’s (PECO) alleged inefficiency, overcharging, among other “abuses.”
Even before he became a city councilor, Alim was already in the forefront of the battle against PECO’s “astronomical” distribution and generation fees along with feisty lawyer Romeo Gerochi, father of Councilor R Leone "Boots" Gerochi, and the late former city councilor German T. Gonzales in early 1990s.
Although some “ingrate” Ilonggo consumers did not go all out for Alim in his losing bid for city mayor against Treñas in 2004, the pride of Koronadal, South Cotabato continued to score high in public approval ratings these past years.
Former media colleague Florence Hibionada described Alim as “a very sincere public servant who visits a vigil for the dead even without the elections.”
He has friends and admirers in all sectors, especially the urban poor, the youth and the senior citizens.
-o0o-
Alim, my former media colleague and kumpare (we are godfathers to the twins, Raymond and Rainier, sons of Iloilo community affairs chief Nereo Lujan), has carved a niche in public service during his days as a Bombo Radyo Iloilo reporter in the late 80’s until he passed the bar in 1991.
As a newly minted lawyer, he agreed to face his former law professor in the Central Philippine University (CPU), now Judge Nery Duremdes, in a media labor case, the first controversial case he handled as associate of Bedona and Bedona Law Offices in 1992, and won.
When I volunteered to enter the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) jail (I was ordered by then ICPO chief Dionisio Duco) for “fighting” in 1993, then Atty. Alim, clad in Barong Tagalog, arrived and chided me, “Pre, naga ano ka da sa sulod man? Indi ka da angayan gua da (Buddy, what are you doing inside? You don’t belong there. Get out!).”
If the mayoral contest will be crowded, Alim, who has never been tainted as a public servant, may be ripe to shoot for the congressional seat.
Some of his peers in the law profession in Mindanao and other parts of the country may be waiting for him in Congress.
Now that Alim has secured the support of businessman and former mayoral candidate Rommel Ynion and probably the Gonzalez political clan, led by matriarch Dr. Pacita Trinidad Gonzalez, he can be a sentimental favorite if he announces his bid soon.
While the Joe III-Treñas-Ganzon camp dilly-dallies on the disclosure of its ticket in the major positions, Alim may start barnstorming the metropolis’ 180 barangays where some of the newly elected officials are fresh faces and incorruptible.
In terms of political upset, Alim may use 1992 political neophyte Rafael “Paeng” Lopez-Vito as a model and rallying point.
Even before then semi-retired former senator Rodolfo “Roding” Ganzon announced his intention to run for congressman in the city’s lone district, Lopez-Vito, a lawyer and a political nobody, was already literally painting the town red, announcing to all and sundry he was running for congressman even months before the start of election season.
Nobody gave the “elite” Lopez-Vito a slim chance to bring down the vastly mighty Ganzon, but the shocking defeat of formerly one of the country’s much-heralded lawmakers in the class of Ferdinand Marcos, Jovito Salonga and Ninoy Aquino to a “wet-behind-the-ears” Lopez-Vito became a hot and serious topic in political science classes for more than two decades.
-o0o-
Alim, 53, is one of the only few Iloilo City officials--past and incumbent--who is consistent in his crusade against Panay Electric Company’s (PECO) alleged inefficiency, overcharging, among other “abuses.”
Even before he became a city councilor, Alim was already in the forefront of the battle against PECO’s “astronomical” distribution and generation fees along with feisty lawyer Romeo Gerochi, father of Councilor R Leone "Boots" Gerochi, and the late former city councilor German T. Gonzales in early 1990s.
Although some “ingrate” Ilonggo consumers did not go all out for Alim in his losing bid for city mayor against Treñas in 2004, the pride of Koronadal, South Cotabato continued to score high in public approval ratings these past years.
Former media colleague Florence Hibionada described Alim as “a very sincere public servant who visits a vigil for the dead even without the elections.”
He has friends and admirers in all sectors, especially the urban poor, the youth and the senior citizens.
-o0o-
Alim, my former media colleague and kumpare (we are godfathers to the twins, Raymond and Rainier, sons of Iloilo community affairs chief Nereo Lujan), has carved a niche in public service during his days as a Bombo Radyo Iloilo reporter in the late 80’s until he passed the bar in 1991.
As a newly minted lawyer, he agreed to face his former law professor in the Central Philippine University (CPU), now Judge Nery Duremdes, in a media labor case, the first controversial case he handled as associate of Bedona and Bedona Law Offices in 1992, and won.
When I volunteered to enter the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) jail (I was ordered by then ICPO chief Dionisio Duco) for “fighting” in 1993, then Atty. Alim, clad in Barong Tagalog, arrived and chided me, “Pre, naga ano ka da sa sulod man? Indi ka da angayan gua da (Buddy, what are you doing inside? You don’t belong there. Get out!).”
If the mayoral contest will be crowded, Alim, who has never been tainted as a public servant, may be ripe to shoot for the congressional seat.
Some of his peers in the law profession in Mindanao and other parts of the country may be waiting for him in Congress.
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