Treñas ‘ready to fight’ against whom?

By Alex P. Vidal

“We shall heal our wounds, collect our dead and continue fighting.”—Mao Zedong

ILOILO City Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas recently told the Iloilo City Hall press, “There’s nothing to worry about. I am ready to fight”—his pre-election shibboleth after successfully undergoing a sinus surgery last month.

“Ready to fight” could be a figure of speech, or was it the city mayor’s own way of saying “ready to continue serving the people of Iloilo City,” and not to literally wage enmity against anyone or any political adversary?

But since the report by Daily Guardian’s Rjay Zuriaga Castor said Treñas “has assured the public that his health is stable and should not be a cause for concern as he prepares for the upcoming 2025 elections,” the “fight” could be related to the midterm elections where he has been pencilled to run for reelection.

There has been no confirmed prospective candidate or candidates planning to run for city mayor against Treñas, thus Ilonggos might wonder who he is preparing to “fight” against.

The grapevine said Treñas, who, according to reports, has been battling with type 2 diabetes (a condition that happens because of a problem in the way the body regulates and uses sugar as a fuel. That sugar also is called glucose), “could also end up running for congressman in the metropolis’ lone district.” Nobody can tell.

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All indications reportedly showed these past months Treñas wanted his daughter, Raisa Treñas-Chu, to challenge incumbent Iloilo City lone district Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda in the congressional election on May 12, 2025.

The scuttlebutt, however, has it that because Mrs. Treñas-Chu or “Raisa” has been reportedly falling by the wayside in surveys, Treñas father and daughter “might switch” (father for congressman, daughter for mayor) positions to run when they file their certificates of candidacy (CoC) scheduled on October 1-8, 2024.

There has been no confirmation yet about the purported plan to switch. It may be true or may not be true.

If true, was Treñas trying to telegraph his punches toward the lady solon by that “ready to fight” battlecry?

Law 3 in Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power says, “Conceal Your Intentions: Always hide your true intentions. Create a smokescreen. If you keep people off-balance and in the dark, they can’t counter your efforts.”

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Let me share a story about the two old gentlemen who meet in the rain one night at Covent Garden.

Professor Higgins is a scientist of phonetics, and Colonel Pickering is a linguist of Indian dialects.

The first bets the other that he can, with his knowledge of phonetics, convince high London society that, in a matter of months, he will be able to transform the cockney speaking Covent Garden flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a woman as poised and well-spoken as a duchess.

The next morning, the girl appears at his laboratory on Wimpole Street to ask for speech lessons, offering to pay a shilling, so that she may speak properly enough to work in a flower shop.

Higgins makes merciless fun of her, but is seduced by the idea of working his magic on her. Pickering goads him on by agreeing to cover the costs of the experiment if Higgins can pass Eliza off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party. The challenge is taken, and Higgins starts by having his housekeeper bathe Eliza and give her new clothes.

Then Eliza’s father Alfred Doolittle comes to demand the return of his daughter, though his real intention is to hit Higgins up for some money. The professor, amused by Doolittle’s unusual rhetoric, gives him five pounds. On his way out, the dustman fails to recognize the now clean, pretty flower girl as his daughter.

For a number of months, Higgins trains Eliza to speak properly. Two trials for Eliza follow. The first occurs at Higgins’ mother’s home, where Eliza is introduced to the Eynsford Hills, a trio of mother, daughter, and son. The son Freddy is very attracted to her, and further taken with what he thinks is her affected “small talk” when she slips into cockney.

Mrs. Higgins worries that the experiment will lead to problems once it is ended, but Higgins and Pickering are too absorbed in their game to take heed. A second trial, which takes place some months later at an ambassador’s party (and which is not actually staged), is a resounding success.

The wager is definitely won, but Higgins and Pickering are now bored with the project, which causes Eliza to be hurt. She throws Higgins’ slippers at him in a rage because she does not know what is to become of her, thereby bewildering him. He suggests she marry somebody. She returns him the hired jewelry, and he accuses her of ingratitude.

The following morning, Higgins rushes to his mother, in a panic because Eliza has run away. On his tail is Eliza’s father, now unhappily rich from the trust of a deceased millionaire who took to heart Higgins’ recommendation that Doolittle was England’s “most original moralist.”

Mrs. Higgins, who has been hiding Eliza upstairs all along, chides the two of them for playing with the girl’s affections. When she enters, Eliza thanks Pickering for always treating her like a lady, but threatens Higgins that she will go work with his rival phonetician, Nepommuck.

The outraged Higgins cannot help but start to admire her. As Eliza leaves for her father’s wedding, Higgins shouts out a few errands for her to run, assuming that she will return to him at Wimpole Street. Eliza, who has a lovelorn sweetheart in Freddy, and the wherewithal to pass as a duchess, never makes it clear whether she will or not.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)