By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
Many political observers and pundits look at the 2016 grand battle royal’s gubernatorial election between former Congressman Mark Cojuangco (5th District, Pangasinan) and Provincial Liga ng Barangay President and Board Member Amado Espino III as the most expensive electoral contest the 2.8 million populated gargantuan province of Pangasinan could witness.
Cojuangco |
Although
consigned in the local level, this contest will be likened to the hype
generated by the forthcoming marquee tussle between Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd
Mayweather .
The
Cojuangco-Espino tiff generates so much furor because of the wherewithal both
camps possess.
Cojuangco’s
supporters reasoned out that the deep financial campaign chest of his father
business mogul Danding Cojuangco would be his edge to catapult the younger
Cojuangco to the top post of the capitol in Lingayen.
A
mayor cited an example of the tremendous wealth of the Cojuangcos: The numbers
of their Lear jets!
“Isang
Lear jet lang costs U.S $18 million (P8 billion), e kung ibenta nila iyong isa,
ilang bilyon ang halaga niyan sa peso?” he posed.
Mark
Cojuangco rides too on a political juggernaut Nationalist People’s Coalition -
founded by his father in 1992 when he ran for the presidency. It had on its
behest 41 Pangasinan mayors out of the 47 city and town mayors that exclude the
component city of Dagupan City.
Espino |
NPC
could show boat to the Espino’s camp the five congressmen out of the six
solons of the mammoth province that had pledged their support to Cojuangco’s
bid
This
not to mention Abono Party-List Representative Conrad Estrella who, together
with the province’s King Maker and Abono Party chairman Rosendo
So have their hands full with Mark in barnstorming the urban and
rural areas of Pangasinan two years before the May 2016 polls.
This
seldom happen in the political history of Pangasinan where the incumbent
governor saw himself with a dearth of mayors on his side.
Espino’s Side
“Tangapin
niyo lang ang perang ibinibigay sa inyo," Governor Espino was
heard by media man (on- leave already for ten years, teh-heh!) Harold Barcelona
exhorted the village chiefs on the Christmas Party he and his namesake board
member son tendered last December 20 at the Narciso Ramos Gymnasium in Lingayen. A day
before that shindig almost all 33 village chiefs of Binmaley town (the biggest
in terms of voters in the 2nd Congressional District) led by its mayor Sam
Rosario pledged their support to Cojuangco and Calasiao Mayor Mark Roy
Macanlalay’s gubernatorial and vice gubernatorial aspiration at the residential
compound of Macanlalay in the bustling Calasiao town.
Espino
supporters would argue with a Cojuangco’s supporter that the governor, a last
term top honcho of the province, is astute in a power play like the
gubernatorial race.
“He did not want to see his son caught with his pants down
rammed by Cojuangco financially awash behemoth train. That’s why the governor
and almost all of his allies in the provincial board borrowed for the province
one billion pesos at the Land Bank of the Philippines for project streaks all
over Pangasinan to make his legacy looks good”.
The
amount, the supporter argued, rides on the crest of Espino’s national and
regional awards.
Not
to be content with the one billion pesos loan approved by LBP-Lingayen last
August 2014, Espino sharpens again his political sword by requesting with the
cooperative members of the provincial board, another round of undetermined
loans, that I surmised would run for tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos.
"We
are not yet talking about the personal monies the Espinos have at their
disposal," a supporter quipped.
Although
these huge amount borrowed would be shouldered by the Pangasinenses through
amortization, it could not be denied that these could buttress the armor of his
son against an impending war with Cojuangco who have been on expensive TV
commercial streaks to shore up his name recall among the voters.
The
provincial government has a P2.77 billion approved budget for 2015 where almost
P1 billion of it is allocated for the health sector to ensure the continuation
of the modernization of all the province’s hospitals.
The
last time Pangasinenses saw monies ‘flood” a congressional district was in the
2007 election where former 4th District Congressman and Dagupan City Mayor
Benjamin S. Lim, a mall czar, wanted to spurn the chance of his pet-peeve come
backing former House Speaker Jose de Venecia who wanted to reclaim his old seat
at the 4th Congressional District.
"I
was running scared," de Venecia, my favorite source of
international politics, told me about his clash with Benjie.
In
that election monies allegedly from the Central Intelligence Agency and the
Chinese government help the hundreds of millions of pesos both camps used to
buy votes, according to my source.
(CIA
and the Chinese government and investors? Son of a gun, nagulat kayo ha! You
asked media men Harold Barcelona, Ronel de Vera who are the local moles of the
CIA and the Chinese in Pangasinan ha ha ha, and former Mayor Lim).
If
monies during the Lim versus de Venecia’s congressional contest flood the
highways, the boondocks, the prairie, the fishermen on their boats in Pantal
River, and the mountains of San Fabian town thru vans hired by the duo and each
household in Dagupan City became recipient of a staggering P5000 thrown to them
like heap, would the Cojuangco versus Espino drown Pangasinanenses with monies
through elf trucks if not dump trucks?
He he he please forgive my malikot (naughty)
thinking, probably it was the result of a wayward defective baby rocket
exploding some inches above my head last New Year’s revel. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!
(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).
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