“It’s always hard to deal with injuries mentally, but I like to think about it as a new beginning. I can’t change what happened, so the focus needs to go toward healing and coming back stronger than before.” –Carli Lloyd

Many believe Senator Frank Drilon’s eleventh hour endorsement of Iloilo City lone district Rep. Jerry Treñas for Iloilo City mayor was what pushed him past incumbent Mayor Jose Espinosa III in the recent midterm elections. With the senator taking sides, it exposed Espinosa’s lack of his own political “padrino;” former Iloilo City Mayor Mansueto Malabo, who son was running under Espinosa’s ticket, was too feeble to campaign, and the likes of former Iloilo City Mayor Rodolfo Ganzon and former Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez, Sr. are no longer around.
Espinosa was left to rely on his own diminishing political stock.

Healing politics
While destructive politics seeks to oppose, confuse, divide, destroy, conquer, and rule; healing politics seeks to forgive and forget, unite, educate, promote, mobilize, restructure, create, inspire, build, and cooperate. Destructive politics specializes in a plethora of dirty tricks, sinister and below-the-belt onslaughts, and mudslinging; while healing politics expedites the shutdown of “black holes” and animosity whipped up by murky and intense political rivalry. The latter paves the way for new beginnings, allowing for both parties to move on.
We have seen destructive politics in its ugliest and deadliest form and the mayhem it has caused for certain politicians and their families.

Politics waged by voodoo
Despite already being in power, the desire some politicians have to stay in power leads them to dirty tricks in order to stifle their opponents. Some seek to build a political dynasty by transforming public office into a personal fiefdom.
Political power (or the search for political power) stimulates chaos. The chaos then elevates a dynasty that will perpetuate divisiveness and bedlam.
With so much political antagonism and hatred, a dawn of healing politics is needed to elevate the situation to a higher dimension and wash away the debris of destructive and toxic politics.

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Alex P. Vidal, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo./WDJ