Mabilog says dirty tricks ‘wa epek’
Iloilo City Vice Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, leading candidate for mayor, yesterday thanked voters for resisting all dirty tricks and black propaganda that his opponents had concocted to weaken his candidacy. Surveys conducted by three radio stations unanimously place him way ahead of his opponents.
“By trying to downsize my reputation, they have only succeeded in upsizing their moral decay,” Mabilog told this newspaper, referring to fellow candidates Raul Gonzalez Sr. and Lorenzo Jamora.
For example, he named Gonzalez as distributor of machine copies of his transcripts of records at the University of the Philippines-Visayas (UPV) and the West Visayas State University (WVSU) to prove that he (Mabilog) had failed in certain subjects.
“There’s nothing to prove. I have never said that I excelled as a student at UP and WVSU,” Mabilog told this newspaper, “But I am proud to have overcome that low point; and to have become a late bloomer. This should inspire the similarly situated youth to also swing to a better life outside of the academe.
“By declassifying my transcript, Gonzalez made a wrong strategy. He only dramatized his desperation and magnified his flaw in character. What would you call a man who would steal somebody else’s transcripts of records for a selfish end?
“He intentionally showed only a half-truth because the other half would reveal the more recent and better side of my education,” he continued. “The other half is that I was in the Dean’s List at the Ateneo de Manila University, where I finished my post-graduate Master in Public Management in 2008. I was 4thamong the top five students of the course.”
Asked how Gonzalez could have stolen true copies of his transcripts at UP (where he finished Medical Technology) and at WVSU (where he dropped out of Medicine Proper), he traced it to Gonzalez’s eldest son Dennis.
“Dennis was assistant dean of the Ateneo School of Government,” the vice-mayor said, “and so had access to my WVSU and UP transcripts, which I had submitted to Ateneo so that I could enroll in a post-graduate course. Incidentally, Dennis Gonzalez, my professor in Ethics, definitely gave me good grades. Otherwise, I could not have been a dean’s lister. Now, isn’t it ironic that an Ethics teacher, in cahoots with his politician father, eventually did me an unethical disfavor?”
The vice-mayor told this newspaper that he had already sent a letter-complaint to Ateneo School of Government Dean Antonio Laviña, assailing Dennis Gonzalez’s violation of his privacy. The matter has likewise reached the attention of Ateneo President Bienvenido Nebres, SJ.
Mabilog also lashed out at opponent Larry Jamora for blatant twisting of facts and figures to project a bandwagon shift for himself. He alleged that all the press releases indicating “defections” from the Mabilog and Gonzalez camps are figments of the writer’s imagination.
Mabilog said, “While Jamora said that the leaders of business, religious, youth, professional, transport and labor sectors have committed their organizations to him, why could he not name names.”
It has never happened that Jamora was on the brink of catching up with Mabilog in the surveys. Of the three surveys made by local radio networks, it’s only in the survey of RMN Radyo that Jamora ranks second to Jed; he tails third in those of RACI-Bombo Radyo and Aksyon Radyo. In the final RMN survey, Mabilog leads with 40%; Jamora follows with a far-off 28.3%; and Raul Gonzalez. Aksyon Radyo has 44.5% for Mabilog, 26.4% for Gonzalez and 24.2% for Jamora. Mabilog also ranks no. 1 in the final RACI Bombo survey with 43.8%, followed by Gonzalez, 27.8% and Jamora, 20.7%.
On the other hand, warm bodies have shown up in conventions and fora to declare their support for Jed Mabilog for mayor. A case in point was the luncheon forum at the Grand Hotel last April 22 where leaders of big business organizations and civic clubs gathered to declare their support for him. Among the organizations represented were the Iloilo Business Club, PhilippineChamber of Commerce, Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Philippine Retailers Association and the Iloilo City (Host) Lions Club.
On the reverse side of the economic spectrum, the urban poor comprising the Bubong Ilonggo, a federation of 26 community associations, likewise pledged their support to Mabilog with a covenant dated April 17, 2010. According to Bubong Ilonggo Vice-President Wilfredo Ngipin, “We feel his sincerity to improve our lives.”
Meanwhile, just recently, the Iloilo City Public Market Development Cooperative passed Board Resolution No. 27, declaring vendors’ support for Jed Mabilog for mayor and Jerry Treñas for congressman. The cooperative has Jose Freddie Ko as chairman and Churchill Narciso as vice-chairman.