Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
The City of Caloocan has been sliced and diced by history and politics. It is an urban legend, historically, and now has two different geographical areas, one that is north of Manila, and a larger one north of Quezon City. Both are thick with businesses and homes, the latter generally lower income to middle income housing. The population is heading toward 2 million. That's meaningful, eh?
Caloocan is not Makati, but it does have one barangay that is so industrialized that it has a population of two. There are 188 barangays overall that are divided into three legislative districts that don't follow geographical lines. There are also 16 "zones" that do, and that is basically how government is organized. Zones.
Barangay 176 has a population of 262,000 due to relocation of informal settlers. That's about 15% of the total population.
Sonny Trillanes wants to be the mayor.
That's why I did this small bit of research.
The current mayor of Caloocan is Dale Gonzolo R. Malipitan of PDP (Partido Demokratiko Pilipino). That's the party that had a major split in 2022 between its Pimentel and Cusi factions. The latter backed Duterte for President in 2016. The Cusi faction grabbed the name PDP earlier this year after dropping Laban from their title, much to the frustration of Koko Pimentel. PDP will field as candidates Senators Dela Rosa, Go, Tolentino, and actor Phillip Salvador for senate in 2025.
The president of PDP is Senator Robin Padilla. He has a clownish presence in my memory banks as the idiot who stood in the streets in 2018 challenging then Senator Trillanes to come out for a fistfight, or debate, I can't exactly recall. The Senator was holed up in the Senate office building to keep whacknut Solicitor General Calida from arresting him on a politically motivated charge of plotting a coup, saying Trillanes' amnesty was invalid. The court said Calida's case was nonsense, but they used different words.
President Duterte is a member of PDP.
Senator Trillanes joined the Aksyon Demokratiko political party earlier this year. Well, that party has a history of some flamboyance as well. When its governing board selected Isko Moreno, the Mayor of Manila, as it's president and presidential candidate for 2020, Vico Sotto and Florin Hilbay left the party. Vico Sotto is the sterling Mayor of Pasig City (see "Vico Sotto III is old enough to be senator in 2025"). Florin Hilbay was Solicitor General under President Noynoy Aquino.
This illustrates that political parties here are fluid. People and opportunity move in and out and policies are just near-term ideas that don't mean much.
I've had the opportunity to meet both Sonny Trillanes and Florin Hilbay personally, and they are both intelligent and purposeful people. Patriots. Principled. Enjoyable. Good people.
I hope Sonny Trillanes wins, and I hope that all the mayors of Metro Manila unify and target specific goals and principles to make Metro the Pearl of the Orient again.
I'd also say that, if there were an umbrella organization that could overlay political parties with principles, goals, and money, Sonny Trillanes would win easily with their backing. This is what I laid out in the article "Organizing to win in 2028".
Short of that, he'll have to work very very hard.
That's my point, I suppose.
The Philippines can't change from dynastic greed to principled good governance by doing things the same old way.s.
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Photo from Benar News (Indonesia), "Former Philippine President Duterte, aide face criminal complaints over multi-million-dollar projects".
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