Obet Armada ‘missed’ the Comelec deadline

“Sometimes it's the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” -- Drake

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Former Iloilo Vice Governor Roberto “Obet” Armada arrived in the Philippines on November 29, 2018 night from a one-month “spiritual journey” in the United States, thus he wasn’t able to “beat the deadline” for the last day of substitution and withdrawal set by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) for the May 2019 elections.
Even if the now 54-year-old life insurance executive was able to land in Manila earlier, he still wouldn’t file his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for congressman in the third district of Iloilo as replacement for candidate Emmanuel “Manny” Gallar contrary to the expectations of Armada’s supporters.
Board member and former Bombo Radyo Iloilo anchorman Gallar will now face fellow board member Lorenz Defensor, son of Iloilo Governor Arthur “Art” Defensor Sr.
Political leaders and supporters wanted Armada to run against Defensor instead of Gallar who was mistaken as only a “token” candidate.
They believed that Armada “would have strong chances compared to Gallar as he still has vast and solid followers and supporters particularly in Cabatuan, Janiuay, Lambunao, Pototan, Badiangan, Mina, Calinog, and Maasin.”

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Did he intentionally “escape” to the United States and wait for the Comelec deadline for substitution and withdrawal to pass before coming home?
“No,” was Armada’s quick answer when I asked him point-blank during our meeting at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn on November 14, 2018, where he was accompanied by his Staten Island-based brother, Nestor, a retired industrial engineer and scientist.
“I have decided with finality not to join in politics again next year,” confirmed Armada, who was sworn as Iloilo governor by Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno during the “Capitol siege” on January 17, 2007.
When I asked him “how about after 2019?” He just smiled.
He went to the United States “not to escape the heat of political climate in Iloilo,” he swore, but “to find closure in this chapter of my life.”
A devout Catholic, Armada went to San Juan Capistrano Church in San Juan Capistrano in the Orange County, California on November 19th.

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It was there where Armada’s late “Mommy Thelma” heard mass on July 2, 2006.
“It was a beautiful Sunday. The sunny but cool California weather was an ideal time to be outdoors. The place was meaningful to her ... and my Dad. This was where she spent the last couple of hours of her life on that fateful day,” narrated Armada.
“I took the road where she traveled from the church and the time Zach, my Nephew who lives in the neighboring area of Rancho Palos Verdes, noticed that she was more than just sleeping at the backseat of the car.
The Journey for me was painful. But I'm glad that, at last, I will be able to find closure in this chapter of my life.”
The former vice governor, who had also served as vice mayor of Janiuay town in Iloilo, added: “It took me more than a decade to muster the strength to confront and reconcile with this ‘Tragedy!’ I know I was not an ideal son to her, perhaps by any standard I was way below being good. But I have done, in the last score of her life, what I could possibly do to make her happy, however short, when she was alive and well. I hope I have given her, with what I have become, the pride and honor she truly deserved. I hope.”

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Armada’s US trip was all dedicated to frolicking and visiting America’s historical and spiritual hubs from the East to the West Coast.
He also went into a pilgrimage in Philadelphia on November 17th and visited the chapel where the incorrupted body of St. John Neumann was placed in a glass.
Armada recalled that “Neuman died over a century ago. When his body was exhumed recently (30-40 years ago) it remained intact. He was the Archbishop of Philadelphia and made a lot of contribution in evangelizing most of the East Coast States. Coincidentally, he belonged to the Redemptorists (C.S.s.R.) Order. The 5th Saint along with Sts. Patrick, Alphonsus, Gerard and our school's Patron Saint, St.Clement.”

A silent river doesn’t mean there are no crocodiles

“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
--Franklin D. Roosevelt

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Mayor Oscar “Oca” Garin Sr. of Guimbal, Iloilo in the Philippines did not want the people to further speculate why he filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for the same position targeted earlier by his daughter-in-law, Dr. Janette Loreto-Garin, and incumbent Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin Jr., thus he decided to withdraw.
Mayor Garin was aware the people weren’t convinced he really was interested to go back to congress when he has already found the oasis of happiness and satisfaction in his farm as a plain and simple “Oca Manguguma” when he is not in the municipal hall.
People who have been watching the clan’s political dynamics knew that as an astute political tactician, “Tatay Oca” would never allow anyone to read their plans, much less influence the course of their future as a vortex dynasty.
Until the eleventh hour, “Tatay Oca” will continue to keep the aces up his sleeves and won’t let other card players predict his game plan.
Let’s not count the political maestro out yet.

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His move to withdraw, already expected by both his critics and admirers since day one, will pave the way for his son to run for reelection against the clan’s favorite election whipping boy, Gerardo “Gerry” Flores, a retired police general and former mayor of Miag-ao, Iloilo.
The clan, which has been politically dominant in the first district for more then 30 years now, is supporting Iloilo fourth district Rep. Ferjenel “Ferj” Biron, who is running for governor against Iloilo third district Rep. Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr.
Even if he has already gotten the patriarch’s imprimatur, Biron shouldn’t neglect the “Baywatch.”
Don’t think that there are no crocodiles just because the river is silent, sir.
While he is still alive and active in politics, the patriarch Garin is expected to find ways how to worm his way to become the next vice governor and eventually governor, the only two integral positions missing in his public service arsenal.

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A candidate for Iloilo City councilor has reportedly agreed to settle his debt to a female former city hall casual employee in the amount of P30,000 for fear the casual employee might “spill the beans” during the campaign period.
The candidate, who badly needs a job because of his mounting financial obligations, did not want the issue to be used against him during the campaign period as it might cripple his chances to win.
“I already sent him several demand letters but he all ignored them,” protested the former casual employee from Brgy. Dulonan, Arevalo, Iloilo City.
She agreed to lend money to the candidate with a promise that he would pay it from September to December 2017.
The former casual employee described the candidate for city councilor as “sickly” and was once hired by the Mabilog administration as casual employee after he lost in the 2016 elections.
“Nagpakitlooy sia nga mahulam kuarta kay gina dialysis kuno sia, but when it was time for him to pay he gave me a lot of problems,” the former casual employee cried.
When the candidate for city councilor did not honor his obligations, she sought the help of barangay authorities in Dulonan, Arevalo.
The former casual employee said her decision to demand payment from the candidate for city councilor “has nothing to do” with the recent decision of Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III to fire her and several other fellow casual workers.
The candidate for city councilor will reportedly start paying her in November 2019.
“Kon indi gid man sia magbayad ipa sa Diyos ko na lang ini tanan,” she wrote to me.

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0 SUPER SNEAKY WEIGHT-LOSS SECRETS: 1. Never food-shop without gum 2. Ditch your tupperware 3. Give your guy the first bite 4. Sip from only one type of glass 5. Dish it out 6. Eat after happy hour 7. End your workout with protein 8. Love pretzels 9. Lose the serving dishes 10. Drink after-dinner coffee. SOURCES: Cornwell University Food and Brand Lab; Nutrition and Metabolism Specialist Jana Klauer, M.D.
EIGHT THINGS GUYS NOTICE ABOUT LADIES INSTANTLY: 1. How thick their hair is 2. If their smile is genuine 3. The size of their group 4. The pitch of their voice 5. Their hip-to-waist ratio 6. Their glowiness 7. What's fake about them 8. Their eyes. SOURCE: Daniel Amen, MD, author of The Brain and Love

SIX WORST THINGS A LADY CAN SAY TO A GUY: 1. You're so much better than all the other jerks I've dated 2. Can you really afford that? 3. So we're running a little late. Relax 4. He's a great guy--you should be friends with him 5. She made me promise not to tell, but...6. Don't be silly--I haven't done that in ages (Cosmopolitan, November 2009 issue)

‘Tell it to the marines, Tatay Oca!’

"My comeback was not about winning or losing; it was about the feeling of being able to compete at top level again."
-- Thomas Muster
By Alex P. Vidal


NEW YORK CITY -- Ilonggos in the Philippines have known Guimbal, Iloilo Mayor Oscar “Oca” Garin Sr. to be a master of political surprises.

We are actually familiar with his style or what they incandescently call in the first district of Iloilo as “Oca’s strategy.”
We know that if he says he wants to tandem with Pinocchio today, he will tap Bugs Bunny for his partner tomorrow. Or vice versa.
That’s why many of us laughed when he claimed “I didn’t know” that his daughter-in-law, former health secretary, Dr. Janette Loreto-Garin, was also filing her certificate of candidacy (COC) for congressman.
Mayor Garin told reporters he was “surprised” to see Dr. Loreto-Garin outside the Commission on Elections (Comelec), when he filed his COC for congressman in the first district of Iloilo.
He reportedly asked her, “ma file ka man? Nag file man ako (You want to file your COC for the same position? I already filed mine)?”
Whoa.
Tell it to the marines, Tatay Oca!
And if Dr. Loreto-Garin will also declare “I didn’t know Tatay Oca would file his COC for congressman”, we will tell her, “indeed, it takes two to tango.”

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Mayor Garin, Dr. Loreto-Garin, and Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin Jr. actually filed their COCs for the same position during the deadline on October 17, 2018.
Rep. Garin filed his COC ahead of the two on Oct 11, along with gubernatorial candidate and Iloilo fourth district Rep. Ferjenel Biron.
The congressman Garin joined his sister, Vice Governor Christine “Ting-Ting” Garin, who also filed her re-election bid in tandem with Biron.
Rep. Garin clarified later that his father and wife might withdraw so he can run for reelection against the clan’s perennial whipping boy, Gerardo “Gerry” Flores, a retired police general and former mayor of Miag-ao, Iloilo.
Rep. Garin vowed the family would come up with a final decision “on or before Nov. 29”, the Comelec deadline on the changing and dropping of candidates.

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We believe that the Garin clan will pave the way for Rep. Garin to face Flores.
It’s almost a crystal-clear scenario given Rep. Garin’s body language, pronouncements, and activities in the past weeks.
Another possible scenario is for the Garin patriarch--Tatay Oca--substituting for Vice Governor Garin, who might run for the House party-list.
It’s still unclear how will the clan complete the partition and what position are they preparing for the former health secretary who is being distracted by the energy-sapping Dengvaxia imbroglio.
Will Dr. Loreto-Garin end up as Guimbal mayoral candidate?

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Going back to Tatay Oca.
All eyes and ears are on this season political swashbuckler.
In all his more than 30 years in public service, Tatay Oca had already served as congressman, mayor, and appointed official (with a cabinet portfolio) under five presidents--Cory, FVR, Erap, Gloria, Duterte.
Except as vice governor and governor.
He had announced on several occasions he was retiring in politics “for good” or doing a busman’s holiday; and that he wanted to be known thereafter as “Oca Manguguma” or Oscar the Farmer.
Only fools don’t change their minds, as the saying goes.
Tatay Oca sprang back to power as mayor of Guimbal after years of political hiatus and became adviser only to all of the Garins active in public service.
Now, Tatay Oca is back. He is once again involved as a candidate himself at the end of his tether.
Let’s watch him; like Lazarus, he might knock the spots off and worm his way to the Capitol first as vice governor, and as governor next when many of us thought he has already fallen back to retirement.

Giving up is never a choice

“It's so important to realize that every time you get upset, it drains your emotional energy. Losing your cool makes you tired. Getting angry a lot messes with your health.”
--Joyce Meyer

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- The excuse that “nabutang kami sa tunga ” (we are caught in the middle of things) won’t hold water in politics.
Some friends of the Defensor, Biron, Garin, Tupas, Zulueta, Espinosa, Treñas, Gerochi, Nava, Ganzon, Alim, among other big political families, claim they can’t decide which political group or candidates to support “because they are all our friends; they are all close to us; they are all good.”
Baloney.
Choose the lesser evil.
Anyway, they’re not all Lucifer’s relatives--and they aren’t all angels, as well.
Once we start to peel off the onions, we can separate the chaffs from the grains; we can identify the charlatans from the real epitomes of public service.
In the “Divine Comedy”, Dante warned that “the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”

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Now that several politicians have started filing their certificates of candidacy (COC) for the May 2019 general elections in the Philippines, speculations about who will face certain candidates in the top and lower positions are also starting to unravel.
Because most local candidates move around and will campaign in close-knit communities, expect many friendships and relationships by affinity and consanguinity to shatter.
It’s a barefaced reality in Philippine politics that not all our friends--bosom or acquaintance--will vote for us.
It’s not even an assurance that a seatmate or a high school sweetheart will automatically vote for us.
It’s been tested and proven that some candidates can’t even collect all the votes in a family; a sister or a brother--or even the parents--would horrifically vote for another candidates.
Politics has always been the No. 1 destroyer of camaraderie, kinship, and fraternal ties.
Our advice to candidates: keep your cool.

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When a friend or a relative gives our candidacy a cold shoulder treatment, don’t retaliate by aggression; don’t be vindictive.
Don’t use the social media to confront someone about past affairs or favors we gave them.
It won’t help deodorize our public image if we resort to “kiss and tell” tactic and sour-grape like a waif.
As much as possible, avoid the words “I thought you are my friend”,”Your true color has surfaced now that I need you most”, etcetera.
It’s a kid’s rant.
Don’t be a cry baby if somebody disapproves our candidacy and supports, of all people, our rivals. Painful but life goes on; let's move on.
Life is an ocean of mystery. 

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We can’t pocket all the balls in the billiards table; we can’t win everything.
Somewhere along the way, relationships turn sour; “utang na loob” or debt of gratitude diminishes and forgotten easily during moments of tests and challenges. 
Jesus lost Judas when the Lord needed him most; Caesar lost Brutus; Bonifacio lost Aguinaldo; and Marcos lost Ramos and Enrile, to name only a few.
When we are in the pigsty, don’t expect a fellow pig to kiss our lips.

Politics has always been a dirty, nasty, and heart-rending game.
If we can’t take the heat, let’s immediately get out the kitchen.

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Strong people are given much trials and heartaches because it is believed that they can overcome such pain.
That they are brave. 
But sometimes we get so tired that we just want to scream and give up.
When that certain time comes that we can no longer walk on our own, God helps us carry our pain.
For as long as God is here, giving up is never a choice.

Ilonggos must bring back the Gonzalezes

“I can assure you, public service is a stimulating, proud and lively enterprise. It is not just a way of life, it is a way to live fully.”
--Lee H. Hamilton

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- It’s not good for the memory of the late former Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez Sr. that nobody from his offspring is being considered by leading political parties today for a higher elective position in the May 2019 elections.
Although the official filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC) for all candidates in next year’s polls hasn’t commenced yet, the Ilonggos have yet to hear some major political parties or groups of political impresarios cajoling or endorsing a Gonzalez daughter, son, or his wife, Dr. Pacita, to run either for city mayor, vice mayor or House representative.
Since Gonzalez Sr., a true-blue Nacionalista Party (NP) stalwart, absorbed a heart-rending defeat to neophyte Jed Patrick Mabilog for city mayor on May 10, 2010 and his son, Rep. Raul Jr., relinquishing his post to Jerry Treñas in the May 10, 2010 elections, the effervescent Gonzalez clan hasn’t won a major election in Iloilo City in the Philippines.
Does anybody, from among those who have reaped favors in whatever means from the Gonzalez patriarch, still care?

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Dr. Pacita and their daughter, Dr. Marigold, tried their luck in the succeeding elections but were both pulverized one after another by the same rising political stars who pummeled the Gonzalez patriarch in the previous elections.
They were aware how much Justice Secretary loved the Ilonggos the reason why they have bandied about time and again the decision to resurrect the good Gonzalez father’s patriotic duty.
Clan members normally “preserved” the political memories and continue the legacies of their fathers by securing higher elective positions thereafter, when the patriarchs have retired or died.
But how can they do that if they are not elected, or if they perpetually lose in the regular elections?
If the Ilonggos think they have something to pay back for the late Justice Gonzalez as an “utang na loob” (debt of gratitude) for his lofty public service, they must support and elect a Gonzalez family member in the May 2019 elections.

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I have covered several reports about “bomb threats” in Western Visayas and other parts of the country in the past.
None of them was authentic, so far.
The threats, delivered via phone calls in colleges and universities or even in the Hall of Justice, are normally done by pranksters and those with hanky panky motives.
They don’t normally come from serious terrorists, jihadists or extremist groups with intention to create confusion and mayhem.
If a recalcitrant student is in trouble in the dean’s office or is being investigated for an internal misdemeanor, he or she may resort to a phony bomb threat to divert the issue and delay the imminent disciplinary action to be meted against that student.
Or, in the case of the Hall of Justice, the prank call is normally masterminded by relatives or supporters of accused in criminal cases with intention to delay the trial or to scare prosecutors and witnesses. 
Whatever the idiots can't get, they avenge by making hoax bomb threats.
Just the same.
Over the years, bogus bomb threats make school authorities and judges postpone the day’s important activities and suspend classes and trials.