Marivic Mabilog: We’re in a much better place now

  

"Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone."

-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox 

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

SIX years after I wrote an article entitled, “Marivic Mabilog’s pain”, I got a message from the former First Lady of Iloilo City, who is now based in Canada together with former mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and their children.

“We are in a much better place now,” Mrs. Mabilog wrote. “We try to forget the betrayals...they still hurt but when you look at the bigger picture, we are truly blessed and we are on the exact place God wants us to be.”

This was what I wrote in my column and blogs on August 30, 2017:

Josephine Bracken to Dr. Jose Rizal: "Love, I will love you ever; love, I will leave thee never; ever to me precious to thee; never to part, heart bound to heart, or ever to say goodbye. 

So, my darling, receive many warm Affection and love from your ever faithful and true till death."

No one knows how many cups of tears has Marivic Mabilog shed secretly, so far; how many sleepless nights she has logged; and how tight were the embraces she gave her husband, embattled Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.

No one can approximate her heartaches and tribulations, but any wife and mother will feel the same pain inside Marivic's heart. 

The torrents of recent events that pilloried her husband and placed his life in jeopardy, must have taken their toll on Marivic as a wife.

No first lady of a city chief executive must've suffered the level of distress, sadness and anxiety Marivic has been going through nowadays like Xanthippe, wife of Socrates, condemned and forced to drink the hemlock for the sins he did not commit.

Especially that Marivic knows her husband is innocent like Sir Galahad, but is being fiercely loathed by the President, treated shabbily by a police underling through their irresponsible and uncalled for public admonishments, and abandoned by hitherto political allies through their deafening and incredible silence.

Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you where they are now--and why they refuse to make a stand.

Beneath the veneer of Marivic's brave and unruffled front must be a dreary wife that resembles Achlys: weeping, emaciated, and pale, with chattering teeth, swollen knees, long nails on her fingers, bloody cheeks, and her shoulders thickly covered with dust.

Marivic has become a woman pushed against the wall, Iloilo's modern symbol of martyrdom, Agathonice.

A wounded tigress can be vain and histrionic, but once we reach the level of hypothermia, human beings tend to become stiff from fear and intimidation.

Like Hua Mulan (The Ballad of Mulan, 6th Century Chinese poem), Marivic can turn into a warrior when push comes to shove, her bravery may not revolve around avoiding marriage or seeking passion, but will be one centered on familial love and honor.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said, "What cannot kill you will make you strong."

When it comes to pushing beyond our comfort zone. fear can sometimes be transformed into energy and endurance.

We can then sit with fear and acknowledge it, humble ourselves before fear, and accept fear's challenge to be brave as it comes in each moment.

Let me share this letter from Unveiled Wife entitled, "Letter To My Husband: I love You" :

Dear Husband,

Our world is not perfect, I know, but it’s perfect to me. Just being able to wake up next to you gives me so much peace joy and hope. Though this road is rocky and it seems to get worse at times, just know that I love you and always will. We can make it and we will. Let’s just keep putting God first and having our nightly bible studies till we get it right so we can become someone else’s or even another couples beacon of light!

Love Your Wife

 

-o0o-

 

EMAIL FROM NEW YORK GOVERNOR KATHY HOCHUL. Alex, New York State is in the midst of a housing crisis that has been decades in the making. 

Even though New York is the place where people and businesses want to be, too many can’t afford to live or move here. 

Over the last ten years, our state has created 1.2 million jobs — but only 400,000 new homes. 

Rent and home prices are skyrocketing. In the New York City metro area, rents have risen 30 percent since 2015 and home prices have risen 50 percent. Outside of New York City, rents have risen 40-60 percent since 2015, while home prices are up by 50-80 percent.

That means young people can’t afford to start families here, grandparents can’t downsize, and businesses can’t find housing for their workers.   

We need to build more housing to make life easier and more affordable for New Yorkers. 

We have a plan to build 800,000 new homes across our state: The New York Housing Compact.

The New York Housing Compact will help spur the changes New York needs to create more housing, meet rising demand, and make our state a more equitable, stable, and affordable place to live.

Alex, together, we will tackle our housing crisis and create a brighter future for New Yorkers. Ever Upward, Gov. Kathy Hochul

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

A wife to die for

“I love being my husband's wife.”
--Julianna Margulies

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I haven’t met Mrs. Victoria “Marivic” Griengo-Mabilog in person, but based on what I have heard in the news about her these past years, I think she is the kind of wife any husband will die for unconditionally.
Of all the elected public officials in the Philippines humiliated by President Rodrigo R. Duterte in his dubious “narco list”, only former Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog got a blistering open and all-out support from a wife, so far.
Mrs. Mabilog, who can swear to any ghost in heaven that her husband is innocent, had the guts to call the president a “liar.”
Mrs. Mabilog--or the Mabilog family--probably have had enough.
Any wife, a mother or a sister, can feel what Mrs. Mabilog felt when her husband was verbally abused repeatedly in national media, kicked while down on all four, subjected to unconscionable indignity, and treated like a worthless human being even if he wasn’t fighting back.
It seems the president was hell-bent not only to kill Mayor Mabilog’s enthusiasm for public service, but also his spirit as a human being.

-o0o-

If you are a victim of a false accusation, a slanderous and baseless imputation, a black propaganda and toxic politics, and your wife happens to be Mrs. Mabilog, who believes in your absolute innocence, you’re not doomed.
Judging from her passionate and fiery rebuttal of the president’s soliloquy linking her husband to a despicable activity based only on a fringe “intelligence report”, Mrs. Mabilog is the type of wife who will bite the bullet for her husband; a wife who’s willing to transform into a Medusa, a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair, and turn into stone those who will cast aspersion on her beloved husband.
The presidential persecution actually was too much; it’s over kill and already OA (overacting).
Is Mayor Mabilog really the worst politician in the Philippines?
What will President Duterte feel if one day, a political enemy will become president, by a stoke of luck, and also humiliate his son, Paolo; or daughter, Sara, and insist without any shred of evidence that they are members of international drug syndicate?
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:2)

-o0o-

There are others in President Duterte’s incredible list who may also be innocent like Mayor Mabilog, but their family members--wives, husbands, children--aren’t that intrepid and cocksure like Mrs. Mabilog to engage the foul-mouthed president in a word war.
We suspect some of those 46 politicians in the list could be really engaged in illegal drugs trade.
They should be prosecuted and prevented from being elected into public office; it’s a mockery of the law if they are paid by the taxpayers’ money and yet they promote and benefit from the destruction of those hooked on prohibited substance.
But the innocent should be spared from blatant and perpetual humiliation.
There’s no spare parts for a damaged reputation.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

‘Jed and I are winners,’ says Marivic Mabilog

“Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away, and move on to something that's more productive.”
--Donald Trump

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Even before Mrs. Victoria “Marivic” Griengo-Mabilog declared on her Facebook account on October 17, 2018 that “we have not and will not be endorsing any candidate for mayor in the City of Iloilo” in the Philippines, I already had an inkling about it as early as in May 2018 or five months ago.
I didn’t want to push the cart ahead of the horse and to be mistaken as a merchant of a cock and bull story, so I waited until after all the candidates for the city mayor have filed their certificates of candidacy (COC); and, more importantly, after Mrs. Mabilog herself has let the cat out of the bag.
And the wife of former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, no longer mealy-mouthed on election matters, has doused cold water on expectations for any endorsement from the camps of incumbent Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III of Nacionalista Party (NP) and Iloilo City lone district Rep. Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas of the National Unity Party (NUP).

-o0o-

The furor about a possible endorsement from the self-exiled former city mayor Mabilog isn’t actually something that’s batting on a sticky wicket in as far as the feuding brothers-in-law--Joe III and Jerry--is concerned.
Espinosa and Treñas, in the first place, are only accidental adversaries.
If President Duterte didn’t harass Mabilog, who was forced to fly the coop for security reasons, the three of them would be facing the opposition under one bandwagon marching together against the Team Dr. Pacita Gonzalez in the May 2019 polls.
I got this “first-hand” information that the Mabilog family won’t choose between the two leading mayoral candidates when I reported, quoting sources, in May that Joe III and Mabilog “might meet” in New York City during the Philippine Independence Day parade on June 4, 2018.
Mrs. Mabilog denied this.

-o0o-

“He (Jed) said No, he does not have any plans of going to New York nor has he spoken to anybody about going to New York,” Mrs. Mabilog told me in a message.
Mrs. Mabilog wasn’t lurking around when she informed me she and her husband are “winners.”
She wrote to me in May 2018: “I am grateful of this episode sa life namon. Some may find it tragic but if we think about it, we are winners in every aspect: The kids have their Dad 24/7, quality time, all the time. Win.
“I have the old Jed back, funny, caring, sans the glitter of the power he used to have. Win.
“Jed goes to Church everyday, regained a deeper faith. Win. Jed does not have to pander to the devil, Duterte, to remain alive and in power. Win.
“I having said that, I truly believe that it was a Divine Intervention that brought us out of the Philippines.”

She admitted that "I am speaking from my heart and that puts me in trouble most of the time."

-o0o-

This was Mrs. Mabilog’s Facebook declaration on October 17, 2018: “There had been too many claims of purported endorsements for several local candidates in the City of Iloilo. Categorically and under our current circumstances, we have not and will not be endorsing any candidate for mayor in the City of Iloilo. We will continue to pray that the good people of Iloilo City will once again, seek in prayer, for an enlightened decision on who is best to lead our beloved city.
“Several good friends had been trying to get our endorsements for either Jerry or Joe. Both are good friends of Jed, but I have my personal take on the two of them too. Jed Patrick E. Mabilog may disagree with me, as he usually does anyway, but I’ll have to say my piece.
“When Jed was under siege from the president, Jerry and Joe knew that Jed was wrongly and unjustly accused and crucified. As someone who is not too adept on the nuances of politics, I was aghast and personally offended of their silence and inability to come to his aid. One friend explained to me that Jerry and Joe also feared that the president may turn his guns on them, hence, their silence and non-involvement. That’s a reasonable fear. I was ok with that. But this was not what I was not ok with: neither one of them bothered to reach out and personally assured Jed that they are one with him in this fight and will work and pray with him so that truth and justice will prevail. Their deafening silence, and nonchalant attitude when Duterte issued a death warrant against Jed by his plan of deploying Jovy Espenido to Iloilo was both painful, offensive and disgusting. Their silence and apparent lack of empathy speak volumes about their character, particularly the advancement of their own personal interests. This was how I felt through my heart.
“Putting my brain to work and using some objectivity, I cannot side with either one because I have not personally witnessed any of them in action as mayors. During Jerry’s full 9-year term, I was in Canada and now on Joe’s more than a year tenure, we are on exile. I leave it to the intelligent voters of Iloilo City to determine whom of the two can best serve the city.
“These are some of my personal reasons why I cannot allow our family to endorse neither candidate. With or without our endorsement, one candidate will win, anyway. In the next three years, Iloilo City will survive well under Jerry or Joe. The City and the people are resilient and are least concerned with the power play at the Mayor’s Office inside the City Hall. The more important issue in my opinion is how the legislative branch can be a major partner in ensuring good governance.
“For this reason, I will be campaigning for the victory of RLeone Boots Gerochi as Vice-Mayor. He has the intellectual acuity, the moral strength, integrity, honesty, determination, fortitude, independence, love for his city, professionalism and dedication to his vocation that none of his opponents have, or at best, very little. I dream that one day, in the future, the likes of him will take up bigger leadership roles in the City.
"Good luck, Iloilo City and may God Bless everyone. Iloilo City. My City My Pride. I am Filipino and Proud to be an Ilonggo.”

If Marivic isn’t qualified, who will the Mabilogs endorse?

“When politics is no longer a mission but a profession, politicians become more self-serving than public servants.”
--Emmanuel Macron

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- The first thing enemies of former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog will agitate is that “Victoria 'Marivic' Griengo Mabilog is a Canadian citizen, thus she is not qualified to run for any public office in 2019.”
This argument is presumably being prepared by Mabilog’s critics amid reports that the former first lady of Iloilo City, who is now out of the Philippines, is being pushed by some Ilonggos to run for city mayor in May 2019.
Only the Commission on Elections (Comelec) can tell if Mrs. Mabilog is qualified or not.
Mrs. Mabilog has not made any official announcement regarding the report.
If Mrs. Mabilog is qualified under the law and decides to throw her hat in the mayoralty race, she will be squaring off with two of her husband’s former chief political allies -- Rep. Geronimo “Jerry” P. Treñas and Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III.

-o0o-

If the law will allow Mrs. Mabilog to run for mayor, she will certainly give the warring gentlemen a titanic headache as she is going to collect all the “wasted” votes when the combined empires of Treñas and Joe III collapse owing to their imminent disintegration.
If Mrs. Mabilog will nix politics, on the other hand, there is no assurance, that the Mabilog couple will take sides in the full-blown political Armageddon between Treñas and Joe III.
Since most of former Mayor Mabilog’s key acolytes are now working with Mayor Espinosa, many City Hall occupants believe the Mabilogs will throw their support behind the incumbent mayor who was Mabilog’s running mate in the 2016 elections.

-o0o-

But a reliable source informed this writer that the Mabilogs “might endorse no candidate for Iloilo City mayor.”
The Mabilogs are still reportedly “hurting” after nobody from the city government--meaning former Mayor Mabilog’s political allies in the city council, including then vice mayor Joe III and Rep. Treñas themselves--stood up to defend the embattled Mayor Mabilog from President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s relentless threats and attacks; and his false accusations that Mayor Mabilog was a “narco politician.”
Even Mayor Mabilog’s second cousin, Senator Franklin Drilon, did nothing to at least cushion the impact of the president’s lethal blows against the hapless Mabilog south of the border.
Whether the Mabilogs also have hard feelings toward their second cousin is something they alone know.
This revelation of a possible “non-support” from the Mabilog family must be painful to both (Treñas and Joe III) parties.
Those who cast doubts and question the motives of this disclosure can always verify the story from “authorized” people-or from the Mabilog husband and wife themselves for more precise and accurate information.

Marivic Mabilog's pain

"Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone."
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Josephine Bracken to Dr. Jose Rizal: "Love, I will love you ever; love, I will leave thee never; ever to me precious to thee; never to part, heart bound to heart, or ever to say goodbye.
So, my darling, receive many warm Affection and love from your ever faithfull and true till death."
No one knows how many cups of tears has Marivic Mabilog shed secretly, so far; how many sleepless nights she has logged; and how tight were the embraces she gave her husband, embattled Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.
No one can approximate her heartaches and tribulations, but any wife and mother will feel the pain inside Marivic's heart.
The torrents of recent events that pilloried her husband and placed his life in jeopardy, must have taken their toll on Marivic as a wife.
No first lady of a city chief executive must've suffered the level of distress, sadness and anxiety Marivic has been going through nowadays like Xanthippe, wife of Socrates, condemned and forced to drink the hemlock for the sins he did not commit.
Especially that Marivic knows her husband is innocent like Sir Galahad, but is being fiercely loathed by the President, treated shabbily by a police underling through their irresponsible and uncalled for public admonishments, and abandoned by hitherto political allies through their defeaning and incredible silence.
Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you where they are now--and why they refuse to make a stand.
Beneath the veneer of Marivic's brave and unruffled front must be a dreary wife that resembles Achlys: weeping, emaciated, and pale, with chattering teeth, swollen knees, long nails on her fingers, bloody cheeks, and her shoulders thickly covered with dust.

PUSHED

Marivic has become a woman pushed against the wall, Iloilo's modern symbol of martyrdom, Agathonice.
A wounded tigress can be vain and histrionic, but once we reach the level of hypothermia, human beings tend to become stiff from fear and intimidation.
Like Hua Mulan (The Ballad of Mulan, 6th Century Chinese poem), Marivic can turn into a warrior when push comes to shove, her bravery may not revolve around avoiding marriage or seeking passion, but will be one centered on familial love and honor.
Friedrich Nietzsche once said, "What cannot kill you will make you strong."
When it comes to pushing beyond our comfort zone. fear can sometimes be transformed into energy and endurance.
We can then sit with fear and acknowledge it, humble ourselves before fear, and accept fear's challenge to be brave as it comes in each moment.
Let me share this letter from Unveiled Wife entitled, "Letter To My Husband: I love You" :
Dear Husband,
Our world is not perfect, I know, but it’s perfect to me. Just being able to wake up next to you gives me so much peace joy and hope. Though this road is rocky and it seems to get worse at times, just know that I love you and always will. We can make it and we will. Let’s just keep putting God first and having our nightly bible studies till we get it right so we can become someone else’s or even another couples beacon of light!
Love Your Wife