Opponents to Announce That Raul Gonzalez Sr. Will “Die” on May 9

With only three days to go ‘til election day local politicians are busy hatching up ingenious disinformation and black propaganda operations designed to mislead voters, the most recent of which was the surfacing of two alleged RPA-ABB hitmen who were supposedly hired by Secretary Gonzalez to assassinate Mayor Jerry Treñas and his brother Francis Treñas. As it turned out, the assassination plot against Mayor Treñas has been proven to be a hoax, a “scenario” concocted by the “Pulahans” within his camp to win public sympathy and boost his electoral chances this coming May 10 elections. The local RPA-ABB leadership has issued a press statement condemning the two supposed “assassins” and denying any knowledge of the supposed plot.

Whoever wrote the script for the assassination “drama” may have stayed in the hills too long to appreciate the realities and present-day dynamics of Iloilo City politics. Politicians here do not kill each other. Voters here are educated and politically sophisticated. And elections here are more like a fiesta, a “happy affair” wherein residents partake of the politicians’ goodies. Hence, when Ka Noli and Ka Nonoy surfaced to expose the “Treñas assassination plot” hardly anyone in Iloilo City gave their statement any credence. Veteran radioman Novi Guazo hit the nail right in the head when he said that “Raul Gonzalez, Sr. may be a shock absorber, but he is no killer.” People may find him offensively outspoken at times and many may not agree with his politics, but people have seen that throughout his public career Secretary Gonzalez has had no history of political violence. This is why the Treñas strategy of labelling the Gonzalezes as the “Ampatuans of Iloilo City” has failed to stick. The label failed to stick simply because Iloilo City is not Maguindanao.

I have it from a good source that political opponents of the Gonzalezes are again concocting a desperate, last-ditch stratagem to win the elections. The plan basically involves announcing on the eve of the elections (thru text messages and local radio) that Secretary Gonzalez has collapsed, brought to the hospital and died. Another variation of the “script” involves Secretary Gonzalez withdrawing his candidacy for mayor (due to health reasons) in favour of Undersecretary Larry Jamora or his wife, Dra. Pacita Gonzalez. The supposed “announcement” will be made on the eve of May 8 (Saturday) and early morning of May 9 (Sunday).

This time-worn strategy of sowing disinformation during the eve of elections may be effective in far-flung municipalities but will not work in urban centers like Iloilo City. For one, news travels very fast in a city as small as Iloilo City either thru formal channels (TV, radio and print media) and informal channels (i.e. “Radio Puwak” grapevine) unlike, say in a municipality like Carles or Badiangan, which has isolated island barangays or mountain barangays. Also, the people of Iloilo City are educated, intelligent and politically sophisticated enough to distinguish true from false propaganda. Aside from this, today’s modern communications technology has made it very easy to counter such dastardly operations and disseminate the right information thru text messaging and mass media.

In answering the anticipated black propaganda, Secretary Gonzalez could perhaps borrow the immortal words of Mark Twain, the famous American author who at one time was erroneously reported by the media to be dead, which goes: “the news of my death was greatly exaggerated.”