Power and influence can be so intoxicating some characters forgo civility, debt of gratitude, and the truth to achieve them.
I need not go far. The mayoralty race in Davao City is a classic example. Karlo Nograles was given plum posts in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s sanctum sanctorum as Secretary of the Cabinet and then as presidential spokesperson. There is no doubt he did the jobs well.
For us Dabawenyos, Karlo’s appointment to positions of trust and confidence came as a big surprise. Karlo’s father, the late House Speaker Prospero “Boy” Nograles, was the political archenemy of Duterte. Boy Nogie never hid his consuming desire to be mayor of Davao City. In the 2010 elections, however, now Vice President Sara Duterte dealt him a humbling defeat.
It must be said here that for the duration of the late Nograles’s stint as congressman of the 1st District of Davao City, Karlo was his Chief of Staff. He knows the political dynamic between his father and Duterte.
In the latter years of Boy Nogie’s political career, an intervening event happened. He suffered a very debilitating health condition that consigned him to a wheelchair. This led to sobering moments. I will not delve into the details but suffice it to say his pet peeve, Rodrigo R. Duterte, had become president. Taking pity and compassion on his political adversary, Duterte brushed aside all the tirades of Boy Nogie and reconciled with him.
A few weeks later Nograles passed away. After a few more weeks Karlo became a popular figure in the halls of Malacañang when Duterte drafted him into those sensitive positions.
Fast forward to the years after Duterte’s term as president and he was prodded by Dabawenyos to serve again as their mayor — and he obliged. However, lo and behold, his Cabinet secretary and spokesperson, Karlo Alexie Nograles, resurrected the dream of his late dad and filed his certificate of candidacy for mayor against his trusting former boss.
Now he and his sister, Migz, are aligned with Martin Romualdez and President Bongbong Marcos from whom flow oodles of moolah and ayuda from their campaign chest like it’s for eternity.
On the other hand, mayoral candidate Duterte was kidnapped, as in arrested and brought to The Hague, Netherlands, where he is being held in an ICC detention cell.
Even before he was shanghaied to The Hague, Duterte never uttered a word about his candidacy, while Karlo has with him a retinue of propagandists who lost no time in denigrating the one whom they called “the old man.” Not content with that, they have been posting fake surveys and hinting that “Digong will not be able to come back.”
However, in the hearts of Dabawenyos the name of their “Tatay Digong” is forever etched. And that matters most in the coming midterm elections.