“When people show loyalty to you, you take care of those
who are with you. It's how it goes with everything. If you have a small circle
of friends, and one of those friends doesn't stay loyal to you, they don't stay
your friend for very long.” John Cena
By Alex P. Vidal
LOYALTY to the party over a personal choice.
This must be the stand adopted by most city and
municipal mayors in Iloilo who are supposedly backing the presidential bid of
DILG chief Mar Roxas in 2016.
Most of these mayors attributed their victory in the
last local elections to the ruling Liberal Party (LP), thus they can’t just
discard Roxas, who is President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III's personal choice.
Even if some of them dislike Roxas’ temerity to
show off in “epal” gimmickry, these local chief executives have to toe the line
or else.
In the 2013 elections, LP’s machinery was too much for
those identified with former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, whose bets from national down to the municipal levels
suffered unprecedented massacre.
Because of their victories as LP-anointed bets, these
city and municipal mayors owe LP and the President a debt of gratitude.
BEHOLDEN
Because they are beholden to Malacanang, they have no
choice but to publicly endorse Roxas.
But many of these city and municipal mayors have
developed a personal friendship with Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay Sr.,
opposition’s strongest bet for the top post in Malacanang.
Binay has been patiently paying them a visit one after
another, but don’t talk about politics so as not to send panic alarms to the
eyes and ears of Malacanang.
Binay, however, is very popular among city and municipal
councilors.
Some members of the Iloilo provincial board are also
pro-Binay but don’t display their preference at this early in respect to Gov.
Arthur Defensor Sr.
Many Iloilo City councilors are also all-out for Binay
but remain loyal to Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and, of course, to President
Aquino.
Mabilog does not interfere with the choice of his allies
in the city council, but assures President Aquino of his “unwavering” support
and loyalty.
Mabilog is democratic when it comes to individual
political stand of his city council allies.
As long as they support the programs and projects of
President Aquino in the metropolis, Mabilog doesn’t give a hoot about the
political preference of city councilors for national office.
AGREE
The city councilors and Mabilog, however, agree on one unwritten but golden political rule: spare President Aquino and Senate President
Franklin Drilon of any unfavorable harangue.
In fact, Joshua Alim, one of the most senior members of
the city council, has become Binay’s virtual campaign manager and spokesman in
this part of the country.
Alim has been passionately defending Binay in media
interviews and even called the ongoing Senate investigation on Binay’s alleged
anomalies in Makati city hall as “political persecution and harassment from the
elite who wanted to topple down the vice president.”
Alim also does not hide his impatience when he sees
negative comments on Facebook against the vice president and makes it a point
to defend Binay by hook or by crook.
When Roxas visited Iloilo most recently, some of the
streamers Alim’s group put up in various intersections supporting and endorsing
Binay disappeared one after another.
Alim cried foul and accused Binay’s detractors to be
behind the “sabotage.”
Many village chiefs have also signified their support
for the diminutive second highest position of the land despite the almost daily
bombshells being unloaded against him on national and local media.
It’s still a long way to go in as far as wooing the
support of grass roots leadership is concerned.
The ballgame is still open, fluid and unpredictable.
Many sips-sips (sycophants) in the local level are still
expected to jump ship and betray their partymates.
This early no one can claim he has the majority of local
leaders in the bag.
