Change in Gingoog?

Bencyrus Ellorin .

GINGOOG City has always been lorded by the landed families. It has been a Lugod, Rodriguez, De Lara affair at the City Hall, except during a period in Marcos’ Martial Law when Mike Paderanga was mayor.

Changing of the guards, so to speak, was faciliitated by the May 2019 polls. A young politician who is not a scion of the dominant landed families Eric Cañosa finally won the mayoralty, largely due to the support of his running mate, the former congressman of the 2nd district of Misamis Oriental, Peter M. Unabia.

Cañosa, a former vice mayor, tried in 2016 but failed as the people reelected Marie de Lara Guingona.

Of course, Unabia’s political fingerprints were all over Gingoog in previous polls. His main man, aside from  Cañosa, is long-time councilor Marlon Kho.

Unabia’s entry into Gingoog politics as a candidate and now vice mayor was least expected. It means he is solidifying his hold in the 1st District of Misamis Oriental by setting a strong foothold in vote-rich Gingoog while his son Christian took his former post as congressman.

The downfall of the de Lara-Guingona political juggernaut may have been hastened by a political gambit turned sour.

Before the 2019 elections, it came to the public’s surprise when Bambi Emano and then Gingoog Mayor Marie de Lara Guingona agreed to forged an alliance. Their parents Dongkoy, and Tito and Ruthie Guingona were political enemies.

In 1998, a few months before Dongkoy would have ended his third and final term as governor, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruled in favor of the election protest of Ruthie Guingona. Dongkoy was unseated from the Capitol  and Ruthie became governor for five months. Then she ran and won as mayor of Gingoog in 1998, and completed three consecutive terms.

She was succeeded by her daughter Marie who only served two terms.

Many political observers say the Bambi-Marie alliance was a major mistake. It opened the political machinery of the Guingonas to the Padayon Pilipino. Marie may have thought an alliance with Padayon would make Eric Cañosa, Padayon’s bet in 2016 less of a thorn.

What she may have miscalculated was while Cañosa is Padayon, his primary political benefactor is Unabia, not the Emanos. And in a flanking move Erick and Unabia filed under PDP Laban, and later on, Unabia’s PDP Laban allied with Bambi’s PaDayon.

When the campaign came, the political machinery of the Guingonas was already opened to Padayon and exploited by the Cañosa-Unabia tandem.

It was not the first time that the Guingonas were double crossed. In 2016, they and Unabia were partymates in the Liberal Party. Lo and behold, at the final meeting of the LP at the Club Filipino, Unabia brought with him Cañosa. That was two weeks before the elections. Suddenly, the campaign of Cañosa turned yellow. It was a happy problem then for LP political operators.

(BenCyrus Ellorin is a former journalist. He is now into public relations and NGO work.)