Polibiz
Iloilo fans of Tito Guingona
I’m afraid that other thrill-seeking and grandstanding politicians in Western Visayas, especially in Iloilo, will follow what Tito Guingona and his ilk did in Mendiola two Fridays ago just to grab public attention.
Despite what happened in Mendiola, there are still Iloilo politicians, some of them neophyte municipal councilors, who want to imitate the infamy of the Mendiola jokers.
These young politicians have been sponsoring local rallies and gathering hakot crowds from various towns to make it appear the Ilonggos are supportive of their despicable cause.
They even solicit from their political masters in order to sustain their useless rallies which have lost sting and credibility in public. They recently created a group and sponsored programs that exclusively denounced the "evil" GMA administration. How shallow and cheap are these fans of Tito Guingona.
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The former vice president was ill-advised to "dive" into the fray and exposed himself to danger of pneumonia when he could just be resting in his farm or stay in his mansion and cuddle his grandchidlren instead of joining the plotters to topple the government.
There were those who pitied the aging former vice president because they knew he was only used by some ambitious politicians who are now in the league with communist rallyists with one common agenda: to grab power at all cost.
In his age, Tito Guingona has not realized that he has committed a grievous sin against the Filipino culture. The sin of "walang utang na loob."
If not for the woman he now abhors like Medusa, he would have decayed as an over-the-hill politician a long time ago; he wouldn’t have been vice president.
For it was Pres. Gloria Arroyo, impressed by his statesmanship and experience in public service, who personally picked him to be her vice president when Erap Estrada was chased away by People Power 2 outside Malacañang in 2001.
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It was only the provincial capitol headed by Gov. Niel D. Tupas, Sr. who recognized the heroism of Atty. Roming Gerochi who is responsible for winning the case of the power consumers in Iloilo City against the Panay Electric Company (Peco).
Until now, City Hall has not recognized the flamboyant lawyer and many Ilonggos are wondering.
If politics is the reason, then this is a disaster because politics has nothing to do with the legal battle won by Gerochi against the indestructible power firm.
City Hall officials should at least say thank you to Gerochi if it is really hard for them to honor the lawyer.
If they recognize the efforts of Gerochi, it is like recognizing the freedom of the consumers from the clutches of hardships because they will now pay a lesser bill compared to the time when there was still no good Samaritan like Gerochi who picked the cudgels for the thousands of PECO consumers pro bono.