By Alex P. Vidal
“There is nothing as sweet as a comeback, when you are down and out, about to lose, and out of time.” —Anne Lamott
UNLESS he has political plans (granting he isn’t disqualified from seeking a public office) and isn’t afraid for his safety anymore, we doubt if former Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog will honor any invitation for him to return to the Philippines to appear in the House Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order and Safety, Human Rights, and Public Accounts (quadcom).
It was Iloilo City lone district Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda who brought up the idea on August 16 to invite the former city mayor, who left the country seven years ago for fear of his life under the gnarly Duterte administration.
Baronda believes Mabilog, who has reportedly lived in Canada since 2017, could shed light on the Philippines’ war on illegal drugs, launched with thunderous terror and murderous binge during the administration of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Mabilog’s wife, Marivic, who bravely engaged Mr. Duterte in a series of heated word wars in the press when the former President repeatedly accused the former city mayor of being protector of illegal drugs, might strongly stand in the way of any attempt to lure Mabilog to fly back for the proposed congressional rendezvous.
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Mabilog is aware he cannot just make a solo decision on this crucial and very dangerous matter at this moment.
There must be a woman, or a wife, behind every political or nonpolitical decision that Mabilog will have to make, since it was the wife who bit the bullets for him when everything was a matter of life and death in as far as the precarious situation during the Duterte regime was concerned.
The “safety first” slogan might still be tightly attached on their minds; they think there’s no way they will make a mistake of taking chances even if the hard-hitting former president is no longer in power.
And besides, Marivic will never allow protagonists in the 2025 midterm elections to exploit her husband’s presence in the Philippines, especially in Iloilo City where politics has been intense and rambunctious.
Marivic has no love lost for most local politicians—the big guns in Iloilo City—who “abandoned” her husband when the Mabilogs needed them most.
She will detest any attempt by any election aspirant to ride on the popularity and “mystery” generated by Mabilog’s sudden reincarnation from a deep political slumber.
She will never a allow any politician—local and national—to benefit from the presence or testimony of her husband now that the wheels of political fortune appeared to have changed.
It’s an “honor” for the politically inactive husband to be remembered. Thanks, but no thanks.
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Mabilog’s presence in any House committee hearing can’t bring back his lost glory as outstanding city mayor in the Philippines when Duterte started to harass him.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me the second time around, shame on me.
What has been lost cannot be found anymore. What has been wasted cannot be recovered anymore.
If Mabilog will show up in public in the Philippines, or attend the House committee hearings, he will only further expose himself to danger—including his loved ones in the Philippines.
Duterte is no longer president, but his family members are still in power. Not to mention the dreaded tentacles of his sycophants in the police.
Some of them will suspect Mabilog has decided to come back and “collaborate” with elements that want to embarrass Mr. Duterte as an act of revenge.
Mabilog has everything to lose and nothing to gain if he will make a fool of himself by his presence anywhere in the Philippines.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)
