Guanzon’s Iloilo City visit

“You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.”

—Walter Hagen

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

MARIA Rowena Amelia “Bing” Guanzon, 69, the feisty former Comelec commissioner, has been going around the country ostensibly to woo potential voters in the 2028 election.

Her recent visit in Iloilo City where she met Mayor Raisa Maria Lourdes Sarabia Treñas-Chu, 40, was more than meets the eye especially after emphasizing that the Guanzons are originally from Molo.

She stressed her family's deeper genealogical origins in this bustling Iloilo City district, widely known as "The Athens of the Philippines" due to its rich history of producing prominent patriots, lawyers, judges, and political leaders even before the World War II.

Guanzon, a lawyer, is actually from Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, though her paternal roots trace back to the Panay-Negros region.

The mercurial former mayor of Cadiz City was born and raised in Negros Occidental, where her family has a long history of public service with her mother, Elvira, serving as a long-time vice mayor.

 

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During the 19th-century sugar boom, many prominent Negros families originally migrated from the district of Molo.

Guanzon highlighted her family's deep-seated heritage in the historic, elite Ilonggo class by asserting that she has roots in the district that has produced the following illustrious leaders:

Franklin Drilon, long-serving Philippine senator and former senate president; Rodolfo Ganzon, former senator, congressperson, and mayor of Iloilo City; Francisco Villanueva, prominent early senator and patriot; Esteban de la Rama, senator and revolutionary general.

Esperidion Guanco, former senator; Jose Ma. Arroyo, former senator whose family roots connect to the Arroyo political lineage; Francisco Zulueta and Jose C. Zulueta, former national legislators and local leaders; and Potenciano Treñas, former senator and representative.

Guanzon is reportedly eyeing a senate seat and has been openly lashing at the Marcos Jr. administration and supporting Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio.

If the Duterte camp will accommodate her in the opposite slate, she has a big chance to win in the senate race.

If not, she will end up empty-handed like other candidates in the past who did not have a big political party to support their candidacies.

 

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Is this a portent of things to come? Bad weather condition has been disrupting the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio since last month.

The Senate canceled the entire trial session due to heavy rains and flooding across Metro Manila brought by the southwest monsoon or habagat on August 10, 2026.

Inclement weather also forced the court to cut proceedings short, leading to an early adjournment by 2 ‘o’clock in the afternoon on August 17, 2026.

The impeachment trial scheduled for Tuesday was canceled due to continuing heavy rainfall warnings on August 18, 2026; and on August 19, 2026, the trial scheduled for Wednesday was called off for a third suspended day as severe weather persisted.

As a result of the series of cancellations and postponements, some of the people who have been following the trial in the past 20 sessions have lost interest.

This could be the reason why many Filipinos are still unable to decide whether to reject the vice president as a presidential wanna-be in 2028 despite mounting evidence that she allegedly misused her confidential intelligence fund worth P612.5 million in the active corruption and impeachment cases.

Whether the senator-judges will vote to convict her is another story.

 

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"Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby!"--Higgins, Act I

Another interesting book on sale (only at $5) at the Barnes and Noble in New York is Pygmalion, a king of Cyprus who could find nothing good in women.

As a result, he resolved to live out his life unmarried.

He fell in love with his own creation when he carved a statue out of ivory that was so beautiful and so perfect that no living being could possibly be its equal.

At a festival, he consequently prayed to the goddess of love, Aphrodite, that he might have the statue come to life.

To his amazement, he found that his wish had been fulfilled when he reached home, and he proceeded to marry the statue he named Galatea.

Author George Bernard Shaw used several aspects of the legend and most prominently one of the names in the title, viewers, writers, critics, and audiences have consistently insisted upon there being some truth attached to every analogy in the myth.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)