Malilong: Five months to go

Malilong: Five months to go

In five months, candidates for both local and national offices in the May 9, 2022 elections will be filing their certificates of candidacy. Next month at the latest, we should already have a clearer picture as to who are running for what office under which party. The wait will be particularly anxious for those who have political ambitions especially in Cebu City.

The tension is comparatively lesser in the BOPK where former Mayor Tommy Osmeña’s word is still law. I am not saying that he chooses the party’s candidates without consulting his allies and leaders because he does consult them, but in the end, it is his choice that matters.

The situation is different in Barug-PDP Laban where there is no central authority to call the shots. As the party’s highest elected local official, Mayor Edgar Labella should and does wield tremendous influence in the decision-making, but he is not known to impose his will. Instead, he seeks a consensus.

Listening to the wisdom of the crowd is where lies Barug-PDP’s strength. But so does its weakness, unfortunately. The threat of mutiny is more real in the administration party than in the opposition.

The squabble will not be over who will run for mayor as Vice Mayor Mike Rama has already indicated that he favors maintaining the Labella-Rama tandem and there is little, if at all, incentive for him to break the alliance especially since a December survey has shown that Labella is favored to win reelection. But everything is possible in politics. Rama has until Oct. 8, which is the last day for filing of certificates of candidacy, to change his mind.

It is a different story in the congressional race, however, especially in the north district. Councilor Niña Mabatid should be considered the frontrunner for the Barug nomination if only because she made known her intention to run for Congress ahead of any partymate. But other than that, she does not enjoy much advantage over another hopeful, actor Richard Yap.

When Yap, who stays in Manila most of the time, returned to Cebu recently, his supporters including former Anad party list Rep. Jun Alcover lost no time to proclaim his candidacy for the same position that Mabatid covets. While Alcover’s embrace of Yap as Barug standard-bearer is hardly surprising, given his animosity towards Mabatid, there is a bigger reason why she should not be too overconfident about getting anointed.

A usually reliable source told me that Yap was initially reluctant to run against the late Raul del Mar in 2019 because he was aware that his chance of winning was next to nil. But he was eventually prevailed upon to throw his hat into the ring upon the assurance that he would still be the party’s candidate for congressman in 2022 when the path to Congress would be less formidable without Raul as opponent, according to my source.

Besides, a number of her partymates are reportedly not comfortable with Mabatid because of her reputation as a “lone ranger.” This has obviously something to do with the 2019 election and Mabatid’s campaigning alone, prompting accusations from Alcover and Ramil Ayuman, among other grumbling teammates, that she junked them, resulting in their defeat.

It does not help that not very long ago, Mabatid claimed that somebody influential was the mastermind behind the graft and corruption in City Hall. She did not identify the influential one whom she called “ungo,” thereby placing everyone close to the mayor under a cloud of suspicion. Her enemies claimed that her accusation was an indirect swipe against the mayor.

It is not known if she had made amends with the “ungo.” The mayor should not be a problem because he is the forgiving kind. If the “ungo” is of a different make and he/she is indeed influential in City Hall, then Mabatid has another problem. If there’s anything going for her, it is that she still has five months to sort out everything.

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