Ynion to Mayor Joe III: IPC building will be our legacy

“I don't fight for the money. I fight for my legacy. I fight for history. I fight for my people.”
--Khabib Nurmagomedov

By Alex P. Vidal

LIKE Octavius and Mark Antony, the relationship between Iloilo City Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III and Iloilo Press Club (IPC) President Rommel Ynion is cool and professional.
Politics will have to take a back seat, this time.
When Antony and Octavius have a difference of opinion as to cutting Lepidus out in dividing the spoils of war, Octavius lets Antony have the last word.
Octavius (who became Emperor Octavian) raises some objections, but does not argue with the former right hand of murdered Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.
In a recent social media post, Ynion, like Octavius, asked Mayor Joe III: “Are you still serious in keeping your promise to help us secure the necessary permits to use the IPC building?”
“We have envisioned it to be a center for learning to help professionalize the media,” added Ynion.
“One of its features will be a library for students of journalism where they can deepen their knowledge on history, politics, and literature with the aid of books donated by our benefactors.”

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Like Antony, Mayor Joe III’s word will take precedence over that of Ynion.
The city mayor will have the last word.
Everyone in the IPC will be waiting on tenterhooks for Mayor Joe III’s reply.
Ynion wrote: “I have seen you a few times on live Facebook video programs promising your audience including in one episode Manuel Mejorada that you would help us in the Iloilo Press Club (IPC) get city hall permits for our building.
“The IPC building has been the subject of many controversies over the years including the case implicating Congressman Jerry Trenas in an alleged anomaly related to the release of Php 500,000 for its construction.
“I have declared myself a friend of everyone. As such, I will not comment anymore on this issue bedeviling the congressman retired as I am from any form of political, economic and social activities.
“My hermit-like existence has defanged me. I would rather embrace peace than conflict in dealing with issues especially the one concerning the IPC bulding."

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Unlike Romulus who killed his twin brother Remus and name Ancient Rome after himself, Ynion is inviting Mayor Joe III to “leave a legacy of our immutable values especially in the world of journalism where the highest standards of professionalism can endure with your help.”
Ynion wants to share IPC’a future glory with Mayor Joe III in exchange for his help and cooperation as the highest official of Iloilo City.
Ynion, who has pumped a personal money of P500,000 in the IPC building, appealed: “Mayor Joe, we need your help to make our dream a reality. It is a dream borne not out of personal ambition but out of our love for the journalistic profession and its practitioners.
“We will owe you a debt of gratitude which will last forever if only you can see and act on the importance of the IPC Building through the prism of our collective hopes for the future of journalism in Iloilo City. Madamo gid nga salamat.”
The ball is on your court, Mayor Joe III.

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

Will lightning strike twice in city hall?

“If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”

--Thomas J. Watson

By Alex P. Vidal

NEWARK, New Jersey -- An illiterate but patriotic public servant is as dangerous as the corrupt public servant.

The only difference is, corrupt public servants are really the real menace to society.

The illiterate will mismanage the government. The corrupt, on the other hand, will impoverish the nation.

The country can easily rebound from the doldrums of mismanagement.

If public coffers have been emptied by corrupt public servants, every citizen or member of the family will suffer from a hodgepodge of government neglect and dispossession.
Former Supreme Court Chief Justice and Senate President Hilario Davide prefers the illiterate over the corrupt.
I reject both.

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THE presence of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in the 50^th Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City in the Philippines on January 28, 2018 didn’t sit well with those wishing to oust Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III before the May 2019 elections.

Roque, President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s representative during the festival’s final day, reportedly conveyed the President’s message of support for the festival’s golden edition.

Roque’s gesture could be interpreted that everything is well between Malacanang and Iloilo City Hall in as far as political relationship is concerned.

Those who believed that “stubborn” Mayor Joe III may have committed a serious gaffe by his refusal to recall the much-criticized executive order that closed a portion of Rizal Street in Plaza Jaro in connection with the Feast of Our Lady of the Candles Nuestra Señora de la Purificacion y Candelaria on February 2, however, think the city mayor is ripe for a kill.

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CRITICS surmise the city mayor can be eliminated through a case for “violation” of anti-graft practices act before the Office of the Ombudsman and, thus, suffer the fate of his predecessor, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.

They suspect his much-ballyhooed “cordial” relationship with the hard-hitting President from Davao City is a myth or like a bubble that can explode anytime.

They viewed President Duterte’s non-appearance in the Dinagyang Festival as a tell-tale sign that the President’s relationship with the City Hall has remained frosty even after Mabilog’s overthrow.

They are apparently cynical on a scenario of President Duterte coming to Mayor Joe III’s rescue in the event the city mayor will end up facing the slammer.

And if ever a case of that nature be marshaled against Mayor Joe III, it would most likely come from former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada, author of the Ombudsman case that toppled Mabilog last year.

If Mejorada is convinced that Mayor Joe III really violated the law when he defended and sustained his controversial Jaro Plaza road edict, the former capitol bigwig probably must be hoping that lightning will strike anew in the Iloilo City Hall.    

Incidentally, Roque is Mejorada’s former legal counsel in the latter’s libel cases filed by Senator Franklin Drilon.

His other legal counsel is Atty. Eduardo Jalbuna, former president of the Iloilo Press Club (IPC).

The man Mayor Joe III respects most

“This is the person you think is your antagonist, who ends up being your greatest ally: the person who pushes, criticizes, and challenges you to meet a standard of excellence you might not otherwise achieve.”

-- Bonnie Hammer

By Alex P. Vidal

NEWARK, New Jersey -- If some allies and confidants of Iloilo City Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III in the Philippines find it hard to make him agree on certain matters that are clearly correct and lawful, they shouldn’t feel bad about it.

They shouldn’t be quick to pillory him; refrain from antagonizing him and get their fingers off the trigger.

Mayor Joe III is now his own man; no one can compel him to follow suggestions and pieces of unsolicited advice even from his contemporaries and advisers.

If he will adopt some of their sensible suggestions, it’s a bonus. If he doesn’t, no hard feelings.

The city mayor is the master of all ceremonies; he has the final say on every crucial matter that requires a critical judgment of the city hall chief executive.  

Whether he fails or succeeds, the buck stops on his table.

For sure, there were those who did attempt to tell him to go slow on the issue against the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD).

But he didn’t.

Public opinion showed the odds were stacked against him. Some were saying it backfired.

Mayor Joe III’s unfortunate bicker with the water utility’s board of directors, his baptism of fire after clinching the mayoral post on October 30, 2017, has remained unresolved before 2018 came.

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Recently, for sure, there were those within his coterie of consultants who tried but failed to dissuade him from closing the Plaza Rizal Street in Jaro district for vendors on January 8, 2018 through an executive order.

Not all his recent decisions were popular, in the same manner that not all the suggestions or opposition from his acolytes were reasonable and acceptable.

Because of the city mayor’s executive order, vendors have erected kiosks on two lanes of the four-lane road as part of the 2018 Jaro Agro-Industrial and Charity Fair from Jan. 8 to Feb. 8. The fair is part of the Jaro fiesta celebration that will highlight on Feb. 2.

The closure order didn’t sit well with pedestrians and motorists caught in traffic jam as a result.

But because the city mayor has the solid backing from City Administrator Hernando Galvez and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), he won’t believe Councilor Plaridel Nava, a lawyer like him, who considered the executive order as legally infirm.

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Ilonggos will have to brace for more surprises on Mayor Joe III’s brand of leadership as he completes the remaining term of office of his predecessor, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, in 2019.

Some of his detractors may be waiting for Mayor Joe III to slip in the banana peel or to commit bad and unpopular decisions while in office and kiss goodbye his chances to win the same position in May 2019.

But there are also strong chances he will finish the remaining 15 months of Mabilog’s unfinished term with flying colors.

This was made possible after he reportedly retained some of Mabilog’s best consultants, not to mention his built-in rapport with his former peers in the city council.

Among those who are reportedly helping rev up his engine in public service are former vice mayor, Dr. Guillermo dela Llana, and former city councilors, Victor Facultad and Dr. Perla Zulueta.

Dela Llana is one of the only few consultants that Mayor Joe III respects most when it comes to running a public office.

Back in 1990s when Dela Llana was vice mayor and Mayor Joe III was a senior member of the city council, they worked together like father and son. So close were Dela Llana and Mayor Joe III that they would sometimes swap some trusted staffers.

Then Councilor Joe III also “accommodated” casual workers handpicked by then Vice Mayor Dela Llana.  

When Dela Llana, Joe III, and the late former Councilor Eduardo Laczi formed a triumvirate in the city council, they became Mayor Mansueto Malabor’s “headaches.”

Facultad and Zulueta were also his most trusted and long-time allies and some of the only few remnants of their dreaded bloc in the city council that brought nightmares to the Malabor administration.