Villar, Enrile, Legarda Barnstorm Pangasinan

Author interviews senatorial bet Villar

Author poses with Jack Enrile

Author asks question to Senator Legarda

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

The past weeks senatorial candidates like Jack Enrile, Cynthia Villar, and Loren Legarda have barnstormed my gargantuan province before they do their hustings in the big provinces of Visayas and Mindanao. It was the politically correct thing to do. Pangasinan is part of the strategic Lingayen – Lucena Corridor where a big slice of votes for a senatorial victory would come from this area that composed my vote-rich province, Region 3, National Capital Region and Region 4A, that complement 38 percent to 40 percent of the national total number of votes.\

 JACK ENRILE
 Before the January 17-19, 2013 poll by the Social Weather Station (with technically 1,200 respondents and three (3) percent margin of errors) appeared recently on broadsheet Business Week on January 28, 2013, I asked senatorial bet Enrile (Numbers 8-9 in the January SWS''s poll) what was his take about the brushes of his father Senate President Juan Ponce with fellow senators on issues like Sin Taxes and Reproductive Health Bills (Note: The January 17-19 survey was commissioned before the acrimonious ugly word war in the Senate between the elder Enrile and Senator Allan Peter Cayetano) and his numbers 2-6 and 4-7 performances on the July 27-30, 2012 and November 23-29,2012 respectively at Pulse Asia Surveys.
 “You can never pin point any measure or any reason as an uptake or downfall. Ganyan talaga boss ang politika. Minsan may awareness ang tao sa iyo, minsan walang awareness ang tao sa iyo”. “Dahil mas aggressive iyong iba sa kanilang TV advocacy, mas magaganda ang kanilang media plan, nakikilala sila ngayon so mas nagiging top of line iyong kanilang mga pangalan,” he stressed. He said he was not bothered about the declines of his rating. “I never expected to be this high anyway. Nag-uumpisa po tayo sa No. 8 noong December 2011 umakyat tayo after ng impeachment during (Chief Justice) Renato Corona sa No. 4. Obviously, may name recall pa noong panahon na iyon dahil tatay ko iyong presiding officer. Siguro akyat-baba iyan”.
He explained that his Numbers 4 to 7 popularity rating in December was a Goldilocks’ area. “Kasi sa nakikita po natin pag masyadong ka namang mataas binabatikos ka naman. Kung masyado ka namang mababa mukhang kinakabahan ka. kumportable tayo kung saan tayo boss, happy naman tayo”.

 CYNTHIA VILLAR
 A helicopter borne Villar ranked (8-9 in the latest SWS’s poll) told me recently in a one-on-one interview at the swanky Consuelo’s Restaurant in Lingayen that The Villar Foundation has started training residents of several towns in Pangasinan for their livelihood projects. She said residents of Santa Barbara, Malasiqui, Calasiao, and San Fabian are being trained to make water lily stalks into basket and furniture. She gives sacks of organic fertilizer too to farmers in Pangasinan. “ Santa Barbara, Malasiqui, and Calasiao have common river with water lilies.
 We will train them to make water lilies into basket, furniture, to remove the water lily in the river because it could be the source of the flooding there,” Villar, who was the crowning guest in a coronation night of the fiesta queen in capital town Lingayen told me.

 LOREN LEGARDA 
When I asked Senator Legarda (No. 1 in the latest SWS’s survey) two weeks ago in the town of Mangaldan how can she solves the world class notorious prohibited price of electricity in the country. This was thus her answer: “Ah, focus on renewable energy, ang ating pagamit ng hydro (electric plant) dahil mayaman tayo sa tubig”. “But during summer and dry season hydro electric plants are inutile?” I posed to her. “Well, solar (power) ay nandiyan.’ She answered.
When I asked her about her stance on possibility of nuclear power plants in the Philippines since it is a vogue among progressive and developed countries, she retorted: “I think I have to think of it”. “NEDA (National Economic Development Authority) proposes that coal as source of energy will buttress our deficiency in power," I quipped. “Coal nakakadumi ng hangin pero at the same time maraming coal dahil ito ay kailangan”. She explained that she did not like coal as much as possible but it is inevitable based on the country’s need on the sources of power.
 So dear readers those were your senatorial bets. I'll be writing more about their rivals here in my column. (You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too attotomortz@yahoo.com)