ALAN PETER CAYETANO FOR PRESIDENT ?

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Since three months, U.S based National Defense Magazine has been sending me its free glossy magazines that feature those newest innovations on military hardwares peddled by merchants of deaths Northrop, BAE Systems, IRobot, Leupold Tactical Optic, to name a few  after the mag probably saw my zeal in writing and posting their wares on my blog.

Senator Cayetano (left) in a word-war
with then Senate President Juan Ponce
Enrile at the plenary hall of the
Senate.

Lately the foreign and military affairs magazine Diplomat has been flooding me too in social media Face Book with a lot of articles and analysis complement by the arrays of its perceptive authors about the brouhaha, positioning, and saber rattling of countries particularly the U.S, Japan, China, and India after I tipped my finger in liking its site.

Exhilarated about significant informational materials it espouses, I even included some friends who love to talk about the nitty-gritty of foreign affairs to be free members of the online  magazine.

In case links for the articles of Diplomat keep popping out at your Face Book account former 5- time Speaker Jose de Venecia, Harvard boy Vladimir Mata, and former social studies teacher and present high school principal Rene Pacolor (whom I told that he shared the same profession with former U.S House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Vietnam military genius General Vo Nguyen Giap who were once  social studies teacher before politics and war sucked them to the lime lights ) you now know already the “culprit” that interceded for you to be a lifetime member of Diplomat Online Magazine.

***

With “presidentiables” Vice President Jojo Binay and Secretary Mar Roxas of the Department of Interior & Local Government undermine and slander each other through their paid hacks in the traditional and online media, I doubt if the duo with their tarnished and damaged image, will still be palatable before the eyes of the voters in the 2016 election.

That’s why I told friends in some huddles that we still could not say who will be the new president comes 2016.

“Look at Noynoy Aquino, were the Pinoys agog about him in years 2008 and 2009? Naah, he became the favorite presidential bet when he mournfully walked at the side of the hearse of his mother former president Cory when the latter’s remain was brought to her final resting place,” I told them.

I added that the convergence of events bode well with him after the perceptively cruel and corrupt President  Gloria Arroyo was criticized by the soft-spoken and almost saint- like Cory. 

***

For me one of the presidential dark horses in the 2016 election will be the eloquent vernacular speaking Senator Alan Peter Cayetano.

“You’re   a rabble rouser,” I told him three years ago when his University of the Philippines school mate Vladimir Mata introduced him to me at the Dagupan City Plaza in a Christmas event when Mata was still the city administrator of the Bangus City .

The defining moment of Alan Peter was when he tangled with the smart-alecky then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile at the plenary hall of the August Chamber when he questioned Enrile’s unfair distribution of the Maintenance Operating and Other Expenses (MOOE) as Christmas bonuses among the 24 members of the Senate.

Enrile probably has regretted that distribution of the spoils as the feisty Senator Miriam Santiago keeps “exorcising” him by disgracing him directly in her privilege speeches.

 The following excerpts of Cayetano and Enrile bitter exchange have been forever etched on the psychology of the Filipinos as they saw it on the evening TV news:

Enrile: Eh ito ang record ng opisina namin.
Cayetano: Kung may record kayo di pakita ninyo, singilin ninyo kami.
Enrile: Pinapakita ko sayo, halika.
Cayetano: Pinapakita ko rin sa inyo Mr. President na may utang na loob din kayo pero never ko naman siningil.
Enrile: Anong utang na loob ko sa inyo?
Cayetano: Hindi ho ba na pinagsilbihan kayo nang maganda [ng tatay ko]?
Enrile: Ano ba yung bahay ninyo?
Cayetano: Yung bahay po namin inutang sa bangko at nabayaran po yan, yan po ba ang issue?
Enrile: Yung mga kahoy?
Cayetano: Hindi ko po alam saan nanggaling ang kahoy.
Enrile: Ikaw ang nag-umpisa niyan.
Cayetano: Hindi po ako ang nagumpisa. Every time po na may issue, sasabihin ninyo sa akin di ka pa pinapanganak iho nagpapractice na ako.  
Enrile: Alan, tama na. Akala mo yata hindi ako preparado sa mga sinasabi mo.
Cayetano: Ang akala ko sasagutin ninyo ang issue sa Senado, hindi yung personalan.
Enrile: Ikaw nag-umpisa.
Cayetano: Hindi po ako nag-umpisa, tinatapos ko lang.
Enrile: I will not go down to the gutter.
Cayetano: You already went to the gutter. Your chief of staff has already gone to the gutter. This is irrelevant to our discussion here and you're bringing up things where a person who's already dead cannot answer.

***

Before this exchange, Alan Peter assailed Enrile and his rumored mistress Attorney Gigi Reyes and Enrile’s closeness to former president Gloria Arroyo.

"Dahil dati na po kayo galit sa akin sapagkat napakalapit po ninyong dalawa ni Atty. Gigi sa dating Pangulong GMA (Arroyo's initials) at kay First Gentlemen [Jose Miguel Arroyo]. Kasama naman po talaga kayo noon sa planning group at sa asar na isang katulad ko ay pwedeng tumayo sa Kongreso at labanan sila," he said.

As quoted at GMA-7 online news, Cayetano also said Reyes was a close friend of their political rivals in Taguig, where his wife, Maria Laarni, is the incumbent mayor.

"Hindi ba si Ma'am Gigi po best friend po niya ang asawa ni Justice [Dante] Tinga na nakalaban ng asawa ko sa Taguig at hipag ni Ma'am Gigi o sister-in-law niya ang isang konsehal sa Taguig na number one kritiko ng aking asawa," he said.

"So every time naman na may hearing dito pati pag nandito si [Comelec] Chairman [Sixto] Brillantes, 'di ba sa opisina ninyo ang diretso? [Tapos] ako inuupakan at minsan tinutulungan ninyo pa kaya nagkakasagutan tayo after that I approach you and I just say we have different opinions, I never took it personally," he added.

Cayetano said he won't go into the details of Enrile and Reyes' personal relationship, but revealed that he knew "a hundred truths.”

***

Enrile paid a dear price for that nasty argument with Cayetano.

His son Jack, a senatorial aspirant who was Numbers 2-6 in the July 27-30, 2012 Pulse Asia Survey, had a  free fall outside the Magic 12 as the campaign sortie came to finality.

As what I wrote in my column in March 9, 2013:

“My already long face dropped further after browsing its findings.

 How could re-electionist senator Cayetano dropped from No.3  (January SWS's poll) to No.6 (StratPOLLs) when he should be up after people empathized with him with his calm tact in dealing with the classless gutter verbal attack of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile Sr. that was seen on national TV late of January this year by the whole nation?

To rephrase Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities:

That was the best of Cayetano that was the worst of Enrile          

So how could StratPOLLs explain why Enrile's son Jack eclipsed to Nos.7-8 from his No. 8-9 in the January Social Weather Stations poll when he should be sliding to the lower notches after his namesake Enrile Sr. put a noose on his neck and hanged himself on that fateful encounter with Cayetano?

***

Author in a huddle with Senator Cayetano (R) after he
spoke early this month with a group of fishermen
 in Dagupan City.

Two weeks ago I met Senator Cayetano (when his Man, er, Woman Friday Marivic Cheng invited me) when he personally gave a seed money to Dagupan City based USADA (Ulopan ng Sumisigay Ed Dagupan, Inc) headed by Ronaldo Cayabyab after I drafted his letter asking the senator for his final assistance.

I asked Allan Peter the following:

“Sabi ng Supreme Court unconstitutional ang PDAF. Does it mean gone are the days of SOP (euphemism for cut by senators and congressmen every time they use their pork barrel to fund government project)? Gone are the days of hanky panky?

“Let me say, yes and no iyan. Gone are the days of SOP, gone are the days of corruption sa PDAF. Pero tandaan mo ang PDAF is only one percent of the (national) budget. Mas malaki ang nasa departamento. Sabi nga ni Benhur Luy na mismo sa D.A (Department of Agriculture) nag de-deal sila directly – hindi lang sa PDAF,” he answered.

I asked him too about the fear that I shared that Malacanang could no longer marshal the members of congress since the carrot (alias SOP in the lump sum PDAF) to motivate them to blindly vote for Palace- sponsored bills like Freedom of Information, Anti-Dynasty Law, to name a few has been revoked by the Supreme Court already.

Cayetano said: “ Tama ka, maging challenge sa Malacanang ngayon kung paano ipapasa ang budget. So it remains to be seen. Itong January hanggang March pagka nandiyan na iyong mga important bills kung maipapasa pa rin kahit wala iyong PDAF. Kung maipapasa e di good. Nag mature na ang Kongresso. Kung hindi, e back to square one”.

You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).