A report that has to be rectified

All elected public officials are, in my biased pre-conceived notion of a general rule, expected to serve either as models of good leadership or examples of undesirable commanders. The good ones among them, study with meticulous care before taking any action or making any declaration not only because they too, like other human beings, enjoy sincere praises or get stung by harsh criticisms, but more importantly because they keep in mind the heavy responsibilities attendant to their office.

In the discharge of their functions, they face many hazards. Among such hazards that a public official faces is to be attributed inaccurately as a source of information. It disturbs him to read a news item about his public position and image that does not hit the proverbial bulls-eye. He is even more unnerved if what is attributed to him is totally wrong.

This is the gripe of the mayor-elect of Talisay City. Atty. Eduardo R. Gullas, who is the president of the university where I teach Constitutional Law, requested me to see him at his office the other day. In our conversation, I discerned that he could not suppress his disappointment upon reading a news item in this paper. The report carried a caption that was completely untruthful. It hurt him immensely.

I am sure that I will add more pain to Sir Eddie to write here the caption that bought him a profound dismay. But I cannot avoid it if only to set the discussion on the right direction. The Freeman wrote "NP-ALAYON JUMPSHIPS TO PDP-LABAN" and that his organization has abandoned the Liberal Party, whose presidential candidate, Mar Roxas, he supported in the last election.

In the first place, I do not really know if "jumpship" is only one word. If it is indeed one word, then the use of "jumpships" is grammatically correct. But my understanding is that this term is composed of two words - jump ship - to mean "to leave ship in which one is legally bound to serve." Applied to politics, it may be taken to mean to shift to another political party. If this expression is indeed composed of two words, then the caption should have been written "jumps ship" because the verb to modify is the third person NP-Alayon.

Anyway, Mayor-elect Gullas said that it is absolutely incorrect for this paper to report that the Alayon, which he founded in 1986, has changed political color. The Alayon is a regional party that because it is duly registered with and recognized by the Commission of Elections, has a personality of its own. Contrary to the report that it has "jumped ship," Alayon, Sir Eddie said, has not dissolved its identity nor desecrated its name by affiliating with any other party.

As a regional party, it has a right to enter into an alliance with a national party whose creed does not contravene is own. In the 2010 elections, the Alayon allied with the Nacionalista Party and with a complete set of candidates within the First District of Cebu Province, endorsed the candidacy for the presidency of the Sen. Manuel Villar.

The alliance of Alayon and the Nacionalista Party has not been severed. For the purpose of the 2016 elections, it continued to exist. According to its term of alliance, Alayon fielded candidates for all positions in the cities and towns in the first district, including a candidate for congressman. They were all recognized also as candidates of the Nacionalista Party. By the way, except for the vice mayor of San Fernando town, all winners for mayor and vice mayor in the first district were candidates of the Alayon.

The NP had no candidate of its own for president in the 2016 elections. However, the NP and the Liberal Party joined forces to support Mar Roxas. That was the reason, the Alayon gave its full support to the Liberal Party's  Mar Roxas but Alayon itself, as a party, did not become a part of the LP.

It came to pass that shortly after the victory of President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte, the Nacionalista Party, thru Senator Villar, signified a coalition with the PDP-Laban. In the mind of Atty. Gullas, that the NP coalesced with the PDP-Laban did not mean that the former has ceased being a political party. NP still exists. At the same time, its coalition with the PDP did not sever the alliance of Alayon and Nacionalista although by virtue the friendly ties of the two national parties, the Alayon, while existing on its own, is now supportive of the Duterte's party. But again, to clear the matter, Alayon has not "jumped ship" to PDP-Laban.

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