Jockeying for the PCL-Pangasinan posts sizzles

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – The maneuvering for the positions for the Philippines Councilors League-Pangasinan Chapter (PCL-PC) heats up in the past weeks with two self-declared candidates visiting members of the legislative council of the three cities and 44 towns’ province.
                                     Sheila Perez

San Manuel Councilor Sheila
Perez

One of them is San Manuel Councillor Sheila Perez who told the press that in case she wins as an ex-officio member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial board) she would introduce a lot of programs in education.
 “Marami akong plano. Gusto kong ipagpatuloy ang mga gawa-in ni Dong (his brother who served the PCL-PC in 2010 to 2013). Perez said she was a mass communication graduate and served as his father, Vice Mayor Salvador “Badong” Perez, secretary since 2008 until she was elected as councilor in the May 13 poll this year. “Gusto kung ikutin at obserbahan kung anong lugar iyong kailangan sa bawat distrito, bayan, o barangay marami tulad ng mga basic. Iyong gustong mag-aral pero hindi naman kaya,” she said as education was her and his father advocacy when she served him in the the Sangguniang Bayan (town council) in San Manuel.

                                    Vici Ventanilla
 Another councilor who wanted to earn a position in the PCL-PC is San Carlos City alderman Vici Ventanilla. He said his candidacy and that of his officers would enliven the once dull leadership of the PCL-PC in case they win the poll on August 19 at the Provincial Training Centre in Lingayen.

                                476 voters of the PCL-PC
Perez and Ventanilla and their tickets contest the votes of the 476 legislative members of the three cities and 44 towns’ province.
 A political operator who asked anonymity said barnstorming the 476 aldermen in their areas is exhaustive and very expensive as a candidate for the presidency spends millions of pesos by giving cash and dining and wining their counterparts in the province for the sake of a favorable vote before election.
 But Ventanilla, a topnotch in the recent City Council election, said he and his ticket from vice president to the board of directors wanted to end this practice.

 San Carlos City alderman
Vici Ventanilla

      Ventanilla prays for another Miracle

They want to stop this traditional practice that has been an endemic not only in the province but in other parts of the country. “I need another miracle. When I ran for the SK (Sanggunian Kabataan) and was pitted with a son of an illegal gambling lord I did not spend a cent while my opponent’s father generously bought votes. I won because I was endorsed by Mayor Jolly (Resuelo – the late mayor of San Carlos City).”
 But nobody applauded the confident statement of Ventanilla as his Mayor Julier Resuello and all members of the city council except him broke bread with Vice Mayor Perez and Councilor Perez in July 22, 2013 in the restaurant owned by Resuello with a common understanding that the mayor backs up Perez.
 A mayor in the second congressional district said not all the 476 members of the PCL-PC can be Christ-liked like those in the ticket of Ventanilla since most of them spend a lot of monies in the recent mid-term election and they want to mitigate that loses from the manna in the PCL-PC poll.
 “He has no money to boot. The councilors in San Carlos would not support VC,” an insider  at the PCL-PC told this paper.
                                                        Ventanilla and cassava cake
 Just like what he and his ticket have been campaigning in the huge province in the past weeks, Ventanilla visited this town last July 19, 2013 by handshaking fellow councilors, exchanging pleasantries, introducing his program, and giving them each a box of cassava cake that caused some dads to chuckle in private.
 “Dapat P5000 kada councilor at hindi cassava cake as first wave,” quipped by a city vice mayor when he learned about it.
But before Ventanilla met the council members here at the office of the mayor, his rival Perez has met earlier acting Mayor Roy Macanlalay, a friend of his father, and the members of the Sangguniang Bayan after their session because of an agreed appointment..
 Ventanilla, according to the source, just gatecrashed after one of his officers leaked to them that the group of Perez has just left their meeting at the office of the mayor.
In a press conference after he met the dads here, Ventanilla denied that he would withdraw from the race, with some considerations, a week before the election.