Ernie Beltran, the caretaker of the City of the McAdore International Palace, told me that Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez of Dagupan City should buy the edifice pronto. He said that in 2015 the swanky CSI Mall, owned by the vice mayor, would be renegotiated with the city government for another 25 years franchise. “Paano iyan pag si Benjie pa rin ang mayor, saan pupunta si Belen?” he posed to me. He said that there is a possibility that the CSI building would be remanded to the city and eventually converted to a city hall. “Ngayon, papayag ba si Belen na Magic Mall na lang ang mall dito sa downtown? She can use McAdore as another CSI,” Ernie, who impressed me with his per square meter per floor area pricing of the building, explained to me.
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Filling of candidacy of all candidates from senator to municipal councilor will be on October 1-5, 2012, or a month from now. This is the earliest schedule given by the Commission on Election. According to a veteran politician who became a three-term mayor, many candidates will bleed through their pockets up to the time voters mass to the PCOS machines in different voting places in the country. “Ang masakit diyan iyong solicitations ng mga mag pi-fiesta. Isali mo na rin diyan iyong mga players ng basketball,” he stressed. He said these basketball players would be knocking at the doors of rival candidates and shamelessly ask them to fund their uniforms.
“Those who have no money, and those who are not into business would financially belly -up,” he told me in the vernacular. Election in the Philippines is not for the faint and financially - strained hearted. Without the wherewithal one is doomed to lose. Sayang iyong efforts mo kaibigan. Tatakbo takbo ka tapos matatalo ka lang naman. Mabuti pang nag tanim ka na lang ng camote, or naglaro ka na lang ng madyong mi pag asang manalo ka pa
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Lingayen exiting Mayor Jonas Castaneda told me recently that he foregoes his plan to run next year as the vice mayor of his wife Iday. He explained that he wants to focus the campaign to his spouse so she could win the mayoralty. He was afaid that in case he runs, he gobbles the attention of the voters at the expense of Iday. “Just like what happened in the 2010 poll when he won, but his daughter , who ran for the vice mayoralty, Sheila, lost,” a supporter told me.
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Election fever brews already in this capital town. Randall Bernal, with all those huge ominous tarps with his face and name ubiquitously displayed all over the town, will be running with exiting Board Member Von Mark Mendoza who has a moist eye for the town’s top post, too. Incumbent Vice Mayor Edith Hallare will be throwing too her hat in the next year’s election. Many residents of the capital town prayed that police provincial director Col. Sonny Versoza, a son of the former mayor of Lingayen, runs as vice mayor under Hallare.
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After Binmaley Vice Mayor Pete Merrera and the allies of Mayor Enzo Cerezo in the Sanggunian Bayan clashed on the P55 million loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines, a hizzoner of another town, who asked for anonymity, told me that a hypothetical loan of P55 million entails an 8 percent S.O.P (psst spell as LOOT) for a scheming vice mayor and the conspiring nine members of the SB. “Ang 3 percent kay Vice Mayor, ang 5 percent pag-hati-hati-an ng mga konsehales,” he whispered to me. Susmariosep, that’s a mind blowing P1, 650,000 for the vice mayor and a staggering P305,555 for each of the dads. He told me this formula can buy the silence of everybody. He said in case there are grumblings and noises from the Vice Mayor, it means he either:1) Holds the proverbial empty bag; 2) Was given a pittance; or 3) Was an honest man that now gives a problem to the power-that-be there.
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My other mayor-source told me before: “Mortz, don’t quote me but you can write how transactions (in relations to projects funded by the loan) are done in the LGU (local government unit). Aside from the monies divided by the boys (vice mayor and members of the SP), the mayor gets immediately the 20 percent or P10,120,000 of the projects (from the still hypothetical loan I mentioned) like for instance from the P50,600,000 million loan (P55 million loans minus P4,400,000 for the boys equals P50,600,000) if the mayor gives it to his favored contractor, or he gets 30 percent or P15,180,000 after the project is done if he used a dummy contractor. You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)
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