THE enemy of your enemy is your friend.
Or, at the very least, someone you nod your head to in acknowledgment when you meet on the street.
Take for example what happened during World War 2.
The allies—Great Britain and France—which were left stunned by the new method of warfare that Nazi Germany waged against them—the blitzkrieg—were forced to befriend the Soviet Union, which, before Adolf Hitler betrayed Joseph Stalin and invaded the USSR, had been their worst enemy because its political system was the antithesis of everything they’d believed in.
For four years, the three countries and the US, which was forced into the war when Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941, had an uneasy relationship.
But it was a relationship.
I’m sure that’s what members of the opposition in the Cebu City Council are trying to foster with neophyte politician Mabolo Barangay Captain Prisca Niña Mabatid.
Mabatid, who was abandoned by her former “friend” Mayor Tomas Osmeña during the campaign period of the barangay election and was later disowned by his political party, the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan, when she got embroiled in a tawdry incident in a hotel lobby that was caught on video and shared on the internet, continues to insist that she is an independent candidate after she filed her certificate of candidacy for the presidency of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC).
But who is she kidding?
Outgoing ABC president Tisa Barangay Captain Philip Zafra, who is allied with the opposition, had already backed down from the election, which, by the way, will be held today.
I guess, the opposition didn’t want a three-way fight that could end up favoring Osmeña’s appointee, Kasambagan Barangay Captain Franklyn Ong.
So Zafra, being a team player, agreed to be the sacrificial lamb.
I don’t really know if that was what happened because, at the end of the day, we don’t really know what transpired behind closed doors, but it sounds so much more civilized and honorable, something you rarely associate with politics, that Zafra would sacrifice his own ego for the good of all.
Don’t you think?
Anyway, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, the de facto leader of the opposition--because, admit it, former mayor Michael Rama, while still wearing the badge of narcopolitician that was pinned on him by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte, has become a mere figurehead of the party that bears his name—has thrown in his support for Mabatid’s candidacy along with the rest of his allies.
I wonder if Labella’s group will accept Mabatid as one of their own if she loses today. Or will Mabatid reconsider her independence if Ong defeats her?
Either way, I guess you’ve all already guessed that this column is not about any of that.
At all.