I wear some old shirts for the gym and after gym, somehow forgetting I may go to the mall afterwards or a friend may suddenly invite me to brunch and coffee, and there I will be, wearing a T-shirt that’s better off retired as home loungewear. As if that’s not enough, I have photos as proof and posted them on Facebook.

There were even two photos of me in those old shirts while posing with Jollibee. Juice colored.

I’ve finally retired the old shirts by transferring them to the loungewear closet. But I’m still holding onto most of them for my gym wear. One word: sayang. Besides, when it comes to gym attire, my shopping energy is reserved for gym shoes only.

If you have any idea how difficult it is to choose such shoes, then you can understand why the need to reserve energy in looking for the most comfortable pair.

There’s one particular brand of training shoes, though, that I now prefer for the gym. The one that sounds like Mike. “Be Like Mike,” as an old ad for an electrolyte drink used to say. Mike as in Michael Jordan.

“Be Like Mike” could be a nice political ad, that is, if the candidate’s name is Mike. But it can also have a negative effect if Mike the Candidate is marketed as someone to be emulated as an idol. If that candidate can never be like Mike, borrowing the tag line will only make an epic fail out of his campaign strategy.

Political ads have to be formulated with the madlang pehpohl in mind. What will catch their attention? What can be sustained until Election Day? What will erase the opposition’s political ad?

Here in Cagayan de Oro, the first important word that has sprouted from a potential candidate is “unseat.” As in “My mission is to unseat Klarex.”

Coming from the former mayor who endorsed and helped the incumbent mayor campaign in the 2022 election, that mission to unseat could be shocking to the Cagayanon who has been hiding under a rock since mid-2022.

With the former mayor out of city hall for now, the incumbent mayor and the incumbent District 2 representative have formed an alliance called “One Kagay-an: Kauban Ang Katawhan.”

The CDO resident or one of the katawhan who has lived long enough in the city is probably seeing some familiar faces in that alliance. Although there’s this friend who’s from Manila and has stayed here since 2019, but still has no idea how the incumbent mayor looks like. He was walking somewhere in CDO, saw the mayor and didn’t recognize him. Someone—I think it was his Cagayanon wife—then told him, That’s the mayor. His reaction: Ows?

Much like what happens when politicians from other provinces, cities, and towns are here in CDO and we wonder why they have a platoon of bodyguards surrounding them.

Monday was the deadline for voter registration, and there was the Cagayanon lining up, perhaps hoping to transfer his address to that one particular barangay. That was the joke during the barangay elections last year: to transfer to the barangay where P6,000 was allegedly given to each potential voter. That’s equivalent to at least ten gym T-shirts. Yay.