E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Election tidbits
Sunday, 04 11, 2007
I heard “senatoriable“ Prospero Pichay deliver before a big audience in a concert at the Baguio Country Club last Saturday this nasty joke on fellow Team Unity (TU) member Chavit Singson: “Chavit claims that Ilocos Sur is now the most peaceful province. Totoo yan…papaano, patay na lahat ang mga dating kalaban niya!”
The whole stretch of the national highway from out of the North Luzon Expressway up to Claveria, Cagayan, where my family went to for the Holy Week, is dotted with campaign posters of TU senatoriables, punctuated at every town with a common poster bearing the pictures of all 12 candidates. That is good organization and wise use of resources, if you ask me.
For the Genuine Opposition (GO) senatoriables, only Loren Legarda, Manny Villar and Ping Lacson have posters. The rest of the GO candidates pitiably lack any such exposure. Even independent candidates Gringo Honasan and Richard Gomez appear better organized than most. The posters of Gringo and Gomez are prominently posted in the same stretch of the national highway.
My son counted seven different posters of Chavit, in their distinctive red, white and blue colors. Chavit has the most number of posters, followed closely by those of Edgardo Angara, Loren Legarda and Tito Sotto. Chavit’s prominence in the northern part of the country where he comes from is understandable; [Chavit even has his name and picture emblazoned on his Partas buses plying the entire breadth of Northern Luzon]. Loren’s, Angara’s and Sotto’s visibility is due in no small measure to their respective personal network, which are well-organized and are doing the campaigning for them.
I read in a local paper in Pangasinan about the endorsement by Susan Roces of the candidacy of Richard Gomez for the Senate. Gomez and Chiz Escudero are the only candidates so far endorsed by Roces, and they deserve that endorsement. After all, both of them worked hard for the presidential candidacy of Roces’ husband in 2004. What about the others who worked for Fernando Poe, Jr. in 2004? I am referring to Loren; then to Honasan who handled the security requirements of FPJ; Sotto who joined FPJ in all campaign sorties and who exposed the Manapat caper; Tessie Oreta whose resources were placed at the disposal of the FPJ campaign; and, Angara who cobbled together the coalition that pushed FPJ’s candidacy, quarterbacked the opposition during the national canvass, and prepared the True Minority Report that detailed the fraud accompanying the 2004 elections? An opposition stalwart from La Union in 2004, who is now running for a local post under the administration ticket, lamented: “Inalagaan ng apat na ito si FPJ. Halos magpakamatay sila para sa kanya. Bakit ang mga kumalaban pa kay FPJ ang siya ngayong nagmamarunong na oposisyon!”
In Ilocos Norte, there is not a single candidate of any of the political parties coalesced in the GO. It is the candidates of the Lakas slugging it out with those from Kampi or from the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), wherever there are no candidates bearing the nomination of the KBL, which still lords it over the province. Gov. Bongbong Marcos, who is running for the House of Representatives seat to be vacated by his sister Imee, has given his KBL candidates freedom to choose the senatoriables whom to support.
Bongbong is running unopposed. Imee has decided to rest. Their cousin Michael Marcos Keon, an incumbent board member, is contesting the governorship against former Gov. Rudy Fariñas. Mariano Marcos and Angelo Barba, other cousins of Bongbong and Imee, are running for the provincial board.
I went to Banna, where the Abadillas are fighting each other, one belonging to Lakas, the other supported by Kampi, for control of this beautiful town at the foot of the Cordilleras. Banna is where former KBL stalwart Rodolfo Abadilla once lorded it over.
In Laoag, Michael Fariñas has the mayorship all locked up. The challenge of the Domingos and the Venturas is inconsequential. In Batac, the Naluptas, with the blessings of the Marcoses and with the support of the Crisostomos and Abellons, are running unopposed. In San Nicolas, Fred Valdez, a nephew of former president Fidel Ramos, is also running unopposed. And in Paoay, there is no credible and strong opposition to challenge the firm hold of the Clementes. Pagudpud, with its white beaches that can rival those of Panglao and Boracay, is still Sales country.
Efren “Rambo” Rafanan of the LDP has bright chances of becoming, finally, the governor of Ilocos Sur. With Chavit busy in his senatorial campaign, Rambo has been campaigning from Sinait to Tagudin with few kinks, very much unlike the violence-wracked 2004 campaign when he lost by only a thousand votes. I cautioned Rambo, however, of the fraud that made FPJ get zero votes in many precincts of Ilocos Sur in 2004.
Visibility and service delivery bring in the votes. In 1998, the town of Adams gave all its 687 votes to then vice presidential candidate Gloria Arroyo. The reason? It was only she who braved the long, bumpy ride to that mountain town of Ilocos Norte abutting Cagayan. In 2001, I braved that same long and bumpy road for my then senatorial candidate Edgardo Angara. Predictably, Angara came out number one in that elections. Last week, Angara’s supporters made another visit to Adams, and also to nearby Dumalneg and Carasi, towns accessible only to those determined and with a brave heart, all of which towns have few voters but who deliver for those candidates who remember them and who address their concerns for agricultural development.
Linggoy Alcuaz, a true-blue opposition smarting from the snub he has been getting from the GO campaign leadership, sent me last Easter a text message that calls for a revamp of the opposition strategy for the last 30 days of the campaign. Indeed, it is about time Serge Osmeña wizens up.
No comments:
Post a Comment