I know. This situation is not really unusual in this country. Various permutations of political dynasty exist in this country such as husband-and-wife teams sitting as mayor and congressman or father and son sitting as mayor and chairman head of the Sangguniang Kabataan. But I think not very many families have the audacity to actually want to corner both the posts of mayor and vice mayor of the same city.

What adds to the unusual situation is the fact that Bejo Romualdez is the immediate past City Mayor of Tacloban City and he bequeathed the post to his son, the incumbent. In short, he is settling for a lower position in the 2010 elections. The even more twisted thing is that the older Romualdez has been reportedly telling people in campaign sorties that the situation bodes well for Tacloban because this means that the mayor cannot misbehave since he—the father—is watching him.

That’s not it, yet. It gets even more outrageous. Former sexy actress Cristina Romualdez—Alfred’s wife—is also running for re-election as councilor and has made it known that she wants to win as first councilor of the city.

The electorate has irreverently dubbed the trio the Holy Trinity of Tacloban—the son, the father, and the wife. In a rather twisted turn of events, the Romualdezes have latched on to the joke by using the same as some kind of justification for the anomalous situation. The incumbent mayor has been publicly saying that if Catholics don’t have questions about the validity of the concept of the Holy Trinity, then they shouldn’t question Tacloban’s holy trinity. In Alfred’s words: “If there is a Holy Trinity in the Bible, then Tacloban City has its own trinity. Dynasties have existed since the time of Jesus Christ.”

I almost choked on the scallops I was eating when friends and relatives narrated the above to me. There were more reasons for consternation. Everyone had something juicy to contribute to the discussion about how the political situation in Tacloban City has degenerated to absurd levels.

There are 10 slots available for councilor of the city. There are 40 candidates who filed their certificates of candidacies. It stands to reason that anyone running for the post of mayor would field a complete slate. The Romualdez slate, however, is composed of 15 candidates for councilor. The Romualdezes want to convey the impression that they are so loved in Tacloban there’s a long list of people jumping all over themselves to be associated with them. Fielding 15 candidates for the 10 slots increases the chances of cornering majority of the seats of the City council—a highly contentious battleground in the last three years for the incumbent mayor on account of a very strong opposition—but it also smacks of cheap opportunism. What kind of a leader willingly encourages members of his team to openly fight amongst themselves while he watches benevolently waiting to raise the hands of the victors?

Putting up a brave fight against the Romualdezes is media man Bob Abellanosa; the man who for many years read the evening news for the local television channel. Abellanosa is not exactly the first choice among those at the dinner table but most of them were willing to cast their lot behind the guy firmly believing in the mantra “anybody but the Romualdezes.”

The political situation in Tacloban—something that has bordered on the absurd and the comical—has been simmering under the surface for quite some time now. The Romualdezes have only recently returned to power since they were thrown out with the Marcoses after the first Edsa revolution.

All over the city are tarpaulins of the handsome first couple of the city supposedly proclaiming the achievements they have made for the city. The joke among the citizenry is that whatever achievements are printed in the tarpaulins is unreadable as most of the space has been taken up by the huge picture of the very handsome couple. Some critics gleefully proclaim that that’s exactly the major achievements of the couple—they’ve prettified themselves.

The Romualdezes have been at odds with the Petillas for many years now. The Petillas have held sway over the provincial capitol since the matriarch Remedios Matin Petilla became governor a few years after the Romualdezes’ fall from grace. Petilla went on to become congressman and later on as deputy chairman of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. The current governor of Leyte is her son Jericho Petilla.

The conflict between the Petillas and the Romualdezes has resulted in competition that has reached almost farcical levels— whatever programs for the common people initiated by the provincial government has been replicated by the city government and vice versa. For example, the province has a singing contest designed to discover singing talents. The city government has its own contest, held just a block away from the venue of the provincial contest. Even the backdrops of the two competitions seem to compete amongst themselves in terms of size. The provincial and city governments also compete in terms of who has the better morning exercise sessions.

The city folk have come to see the competition as akin to the kapuso vs kapamilya contest not only because it has become entertaining but more because it has become quite shallow although most concede that the competition has also somehow resulted in more services being offered to citizens.

The problem is that the competition had become dysfunctional in many occasions such as during the most recent city fiesta when the provincial government and the city government hosted their own festivals. Reports have it that the street dancing related to one festival was rudely interrupted because activities related to the other festival cut through the street dancing venue. During the recent Palarong Pambansa, which was hosted by the provincial government, the city government reportedly refused to allow the use of certain facilities owned by the city.

The result of all these is that there is now a seeming exodus to relocate most businesses to the nearby town of Palo, which already hosts most government regional offices. SM is reportedly building its first mall in the region in Palo and the Petilla matriarch, Remedios Petilla, is now running for the post of mayor of the town. There is also the plan to move the provincial capitol to Palo eventually. If all these happen, Tacloban will most like degenerate into a shell of what it used to be and what it could have become. No wonder “have mercy on Tacloban City” is an oft-repeated plea that’s being whispered around by concerned citizens.

Quite frankly, the whole hullabaloo looks like a badly conceptualized, poorly staged moro moro acted out by awfully hammy actors. I haven’t been able to stomach watching those people declaim their appeal for the President to “please listen to them.” One of them delivered this hair-raising monologue about how the President is still young and how she is still their best hope in Congress. Even the first son, Representative Mikey Arroyo has joined in the chorus, making a dramatic appeal to “Her Excellency, my mother” to heed the people’s call. I know; it’s enough to make sober people run out of a room screaming.

I have a strong feeling President Gloria Arroyo will win if she does run for Congress. Randy David will give her a good fight, but my fearless forecast is that she will still win even in an honest and clean election. She will win for the same reason that the Marcoses have always won elections in Ilocos Norte or the Romualdezes have always won elections in Leyte despite their infamy. And I am not talking about recent elections—both families won elections in their home turfs barely a few years after their fall from grace. It’s the same reason why the Ampatuans will mostly likely still win some positions of power in Maguindanao despite the unspeakably evil massacre that happened there recently.

We all indulge in wishful thinking that the electorate has matured and that Filipinos are now more discerning in their choice of leaders. The reality, however, is that people in this country don’t get voted into office on the strength of what they are saying, or because of their platforms, or because of moral issues. People get elected into office because of highly personal, emotional, as well as practical reasons.

As can be expected, Mrs. Arroyo has done more than any other politician for her cabalens than any other politician especially in the last few months. Of course it can be argued that she and her administration also did a lot of really awful things for this country; it can even be pointed out that she brought shame and embarrassment to Kapampangans and to Filipinos in general, but to many voters in Pampanga, in her hometown of Lubao particularly, all those are abstract, ephemeral concepts that pale in comparison to the roads, bridges, public structures and other political largesse that they have received from her patronage.

All these will not make the whole idea right, or comprehensible, or even remotely logical. Why someone who has already reached the pinnacle of power would deign to settle for a lower elective post defies reason.

At the personal level, why someone would willingly put herself through the gauntlet again—subject one’s self to more humiliation and public ridicule—is something that baffles the mind. There’s the possibility of megalomania, of course, even perhaps extreme narcissism, or a bloated sense of self-importance. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, it has been said. People who are drunk with power become numb. All these are convenient analyses to explain this madcap idea of a President of a country running for a seat in Congress after her term.

But as Representative Teddyboy Locsin (who probably has the combined IQ of half the representatives in Congress) remarked publicly recently, the President is one smart woman. Mrs. Arroyo is a lot of things, but she is not stupid.

Of course she has not openly admitted that she will run for Congress, but her body language seems to confirm the message. It is within the bounds of reason that given her legendary short temper she could already have squashed the supposed clamor with a quick dismissal if she weren’t so inclined to heed it. The truth is that at the very least, she is playing coy and even seems tickled pink at the clamor of her sycophants.

So what then is the political masterplan behind all these attempts to confound the general electorate?

The general drift of the speculative drivel out there is that the President wants to run for Congress, become Speaker of the House, and then marshal forces to push Charter change ultimately leading to her installation as Prime Minister. There are a lot of gaps in this conspiracy theory, foremost of which is that it cannot happen without the support of the Senate and everyone knows there is absolutely no way Mrs. Arroyo is going to have enough senators supportive of her or of charter change. Let’s not act naïve here by thinking that any senator’s objection to Charter change is borne out of altruistic reason—the simple fact of the matter is that supporting Charter change is tantamount to political suicide on the part of any senator. They might as well hang themselves in public.

In addition, everyone knows the specter of having Mrs. Arroyo at the helm of the next government is anathema even among those who are politically neutral; let’s not talk anymore about the greater majority of people who hate her with a passion. Mrs. Arroyo becoming Prime Minister? It’s not going to happen.

There is the other scenario being floated of course: The President becoming Speaker of the House and using the vast resources she has presumably amassed as President to control the House of Representatives purportedly to protect herself and her allies from political persecution, or simply to make things difficult for the new administration in the event that the next administration is unfriendly or hostile toward her.

Again, there is a flaw in this logical deduction. The basic truth is that there is no need for all that rigmarole. This country has a rather dismal record of bringing to justice powerful people who have committed serious offenses and wrongdoings. The list includes the Estradas, the Marcoses, the Romualdezes, even the long list of former renegade military men who have not only escaped the so-called long arm of the law but have even bounced back to power. Even if Mrs. Arroyo isn’t in power anymore, she will still have allies, not to mention family members in power who can do everything to block her persecution.

We can all give this bothersome, bewildering enigma of the President’s political plans our best shot at analysis. Mrs. Arroyo rose to power and survived numerous crises because of a confluence of events that ordinary people would ascribe to destiny. Perhaps Mrs. Arroyo is waiting for—nay, anticipating—another confluence of events that would propel her to political center stage again. I think she is pushing her luck too far this time around.

I think that making generalizations is a dangerous thing but it’s difficult to argue with people with strong convictions based on years of observation. It’s almost impossible to single out politicians who have remained untainted with accusations of corruption or abuse of power while in office. However, I still think that politics is a career that requires certain competencies. Thus, getting any Juan, Pedro and Jose to run for office without any regard for qualification, or skills, or platforms is potentially disastrous.

In response to the call of the times, there are those who have shamelessly abrogated unto themselves the mantle of “new politics” even if they represent the status quo. Like Chiz Escudero, they use the mantra of change, or as Escudero likes to say so himself, “new change,” merely as a convenient political slogan rather than as an advocacy.

Thus, in Leyte, and I presume anywhere else, husbands are giving way to wives or vice versa, parents are giving way to children, or siblings to another sibling. Political dynasties are playing a game of musical chairs. The strange thing is that these families actually expect voters to believe that the change in candidates already represent change in politics.

And then there is this new development of politics by affinity—that is, husbands or wives of residents of the province gunning for elective posts in the province.

Actor Richard Gomez is seeking to represent the people of the Fourth District of Leyte, home turf of his beautiful wife, Lucy Torres Gomez. Former actress Christina “Kring Kring” Gonzales Romualdez, currently councilor of Tacloban City, is reportedly intent on becoming its next mayor.

I talked to a number of voters in the Fourth District to get a sense of how people are responding to Gomez’ candidacy. I didn’t meet anyone who had a nice word to say about it. Everyone I talked to felt that Gomez didn’t stand a chance of winning. First, he is up against a powerful political clan—the Codillas of Ormoc—whose family is well entrenched in the district. Practically all the mayors of the towns in the Fourth District are related either by blood or marriage to the Codillas. Second, Lucy Torres Gomez’ family is not exactly endeared to the masses of the district. The Torreses are hacienderos who don’t socialize with the poor. Third, there is a backlash directed at celebrities like Gomez who are perceived as opportunists.

“But what about Gomez’ matinee idol appeal?” I asked. Apparently, Gomez is not that popular in Leyte, which is Kapamilya country. “It would have been a different story altogether if it were Piolo Pascual running,” the women I talked to shrieked.

Christina Gonzalez Romualdez, who is married to Alfred Romualdez, current mayor of Tacloban, already won the most number of votes as councilor in the 2007 elections. If we are to believe the scuttlebutt, Alfred Romualdez will challenge Jericho Petilla for the governorship leaving his wife, the former actress, at the helm of the city. If things go as planned, she will be up against Dan Palami, a young charismatic leader who seems to have the support of the youth. Palami was born and schooled in Tacloban City while Romualdez’ ties to the city is purely by marriage. The talk around the city is that most people have had enough of politics by affinity.

* * *

Like everyone else, my family and I were glued to the television set last Sunday as Emmanuel “Pacman” Pacquiao pummeled the daylights out of Manuel Cotto of Puerto Rico. As usual, GMA-7 loaded the delayed telecast with advertisements although mercifully, did not cut off telecasts in the middle of a round to accommodate a political advertisement. Pacquiao’s victory over Cotto has already been discussed and written about extensively—in fact, many broadsheets gave the news the proverbial “second coming” treatment— and there’s really very little else that can be written about the fight itself.

A friend who watched the fight live at Las Vegas gave a minute-by-minute update via twitter and Facebook using his cellphone. It was a wonder he was able to watch the fight itself. He reported that the audience chanted “We want Floyd!” immediately after Pacquiao’s victory like spectators at a gladiator fight screaming for more blood. This is the basic nature of the sport—it celebrates one man’s physical victory over another; and one of the sad consequences of Pacquiao’s phenomenal success in boxing is that it makes us forget about the cruel nature of the sport itself. Pacquaio won; but he didn’t exactly come out of it unscathed. Doctors had to drain blood out of his right ear after the fight and his face was all puffy.

Barely a day before Pacquiao went up the ring to face Cotto, another Filipino boxer Z Gorres was knocked down on Round 10 of his fight against Colombian boxer Luiz Melendez and had to undergo emergency surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain. Although Gorres’s condition has already improved, indications point to many months in rehabilitation. He will never be able to return to boxing again or take up other competitive sports.

One can therefore empathize with Dionisia Pacquaio’s request for his son to give up boxing already. It’s a mother’s sincere plea for a son’s well-being, something that will most likely get drowned in the mad scramble to sustain one of the country’s few remaining tickets to global sports renown.

When Pacquiao comes home in the next few days, he will, however, have to face more frenzied attention to talk about the state of his personal life, in particular, about his marriage. The gossip mill has been working overtime over the last week spilling out really juicy and scandalous bits about his supposed affair with a starlet who was lording it over at Las Vegas. All the drivel is really sad because media projection of Pacquiao has already been largely positive in the last year or so and his stature as a Filipino role model has been gaining ground. A scandal is the last thing he needs right now.