Yellow, curiously

THERE ARE a thousand and one areas of opportunity, read: problems/challenges, in Mabalacat City waiting for its new Comelected Mayor Crisostomo Garbo.

Of these, he picked as Priority One the repainting of city hall at the Xevera township in Barangay Tabun. And of all the myriad colors in the spectrum to choose from, it had to be yellow – of the syphilitic or ‘Noy shade at that!

Wow! Is that some secularization, if not sacrilege, of the Marian blue and white of now-ex-Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales’ devotion?    

Maybe yellow is Garbo’s favorite color, all rhymes and reasons being patently discordant and illogical in this choice.

Offhand, yellow takes the hues of cowardice. As in the yellow-livered sorry excuse for a soldier who waved the white flag at the first sight of the enemy.

No way that Garbo comes anywhere near a cobarde, having proven himself a fighter – in and out of politics – even against overwhelming odds. I remember him standing up to the then supremely popular Gov. Lito Lapid in at least two independent runs for the provincial board, and emerging Number One.

And definitively life-threatening to Garbo was when he literally stayed the hand of the then-dreaded now-departed Jess Tolentino, Lapid’s self-appointed gun-laden close-in security, about to strike at the now-dead board member Eddie Chu following a heated argument at the corridor of the Capitol. Porac legend has it, not many are said to have lived to tell their tale of altercation with Mang Jess. 

In the current scheme of things political, Garbo made the worst choice of color for city hall. Yellow is not only off-season but even an anathema in the blood red of the Duterte regime. 

Yellow too, if it must be overstressed, is the color of vindictiveness that made the express policy of the BS Aquino III administration.

It colors then, not just politically, Garbo’s first pronouncement as hizzoner: “The people of Mabalacat should not be afraid because I will establish a conciliatory administration and I will not be vindictive.”  Highlighting, mine.

So, safe for us to presume that colleague Diosdado “Deng” Pangilinan, unarguably Morales’ fiercest loyalist, shall remain in his various capacities, at least the official ones, in the city? His double, not single, vision for Mabalacat City to jive now with whatever Garbo has laid out before him?

So, shall city tourism officer Guy Hilbero stay in place at the Mabalacat City Hall Annex inside the Clark Freeport? This, despite what a media colleague said as Garbo’s pre-proclamation promise to close down the annex?

And, on the same account, the best Pangan bar-none that is Benjie as head of the city Public Employment Service Office?

As to his vow of “a conciliatory administration,” Garbo had already taken giant strides – having conciliated himself with once-Boking-confidante-turned-wannabe-whistleblower June Magbalot; and taken by his side at his very proclamation once-Boking-minion-turned-bitter-enemy Chok Santos, long-time head of the city traffic enforcement group ungraciously dismissed by Morales.        

Conciliatory administration, indeed! Like, the friend-turned-enemy of my enemy is now my friend. If only for the moment, knowing full well the impermanence of friendship –  enmity, as well – in politics.   

“I always pray for our beloved city. I enjoin our people to unite for the progress of Mabalacat.” No doubt, “Christian” as he proclaims himself to be, Garbo prays. And prays a lot. Maybe, even more than Vice Mayor Christian Halili whose prayer for a TRO against Garbo’s taking over city hall was initially granted but later dismissed.

As to Garbo’s call for unity, we pray with him, and wish him well.

But pray, tell, Mister Mayor, how will the fearsomely fiery Pyra Lucas – she who filed the case that ultimately deconstructed the long-standing Boking regime and set the stage for your ascendance – fare in your administration? What with her penchant to witch hunt even the slightest shade of yellow from every nook and cranny of the city?