Watching for a surge favoring the “dejado” | The Freeman

Sabong competes with basketball as our national pastime. Although, I dare treat the evolving election time as a pastime higher in ranking than both. In sabong, there is a glaring discrimination even before the start of fight. Owners and cocks are assigned disparaging and discriminatory sides: Llamado or meron sign is lit up for the one with the larger pot-money bet, and dejado or wala under an unlit sign, signifying long shot. In elections, the description administration candidates (llamado) versus any opposition lineup, (dejado) is worse than disparaging and discriminatory.

The internet says there are known dishonest and deceitful ways in the pairing of cocks. Surreptitiously, by a swift and expert motion of a hand, a rib of a cock can be cracked, or its wing disabled, or a leg sprained. Sometimes, a poisoned grain or food niblet is flicked to an opposing cock’s pecking space. At other times, when the blade is commissioned for attachment, a blade man’s slight but critical maladjustment of the blade may undo a cock’s fighting effectiveness. Of course, there are stories of blades being swiped with poison.

The situations of Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, both candidates for reelection in 2025, aren’t unlike fighting cocks fed a grain or food niblet laced with toxin. These fighting cocks, mayors, in this article, are each with a cracked rib, disabled wing, sprained leg, and with blade swiped with poison administered by power wielders. Why?

Not only is election our number 1 national pastime, I say that politicians have great foresight. The present national dispensation is looking far ahead to the 2028 polls. Cortes isn’t presently aligned with any political party under the umbrella of the president while Rama recently declared being on the side of the president’s raging political foe. Yes, the current national leadership probably upon the insistence of local honchos believes that Cortes and Rama are difficult to beat in a fair 2025 electoral fight. Cortes and Rama must be removed this early from any future electoral processes lest they could be in position to effect the 2028 presidential elections.

I am not Cortes’ or Rama’s