Belen Should Watch the Stunts of Brian

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

With roughly 3,000 lead votes by Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez against mayoral rival and Vice Mayor Brian Lim in the recent scientific poll, the former and her supporters should guard themselves on the surprises the latter can pull as the May 13, 2019 election approaches.

Then re-elective Bonuan Gueset Barangay Chairman Angel Gumarang lost to challenger and come backing kapitan candidate Rico Mejia when then Dagupan City Mayor Benjie S. Lim struck out a drama that saw the reelective village chief, with all the resources of the huge village at his disposal, lost to Mejia.

Gumarang told us media men then that he could not do his hustings effectively to the various sitios of the biggest village in the city, mind you guys its population bigger than those fourth class towns, because the police through the order of Lim watched him and his men closely.

PERENNIAL RIVAL - Reelective Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez (above photo, clockwise) and former Mayor Benjie S. Lim and his son  Vice Mayor Brian.  The younger Lim and Fernandez  are rival for the  May 13, 2019  mayorship election. The families of Fernandez and Lim are old political and business rivals. They, all Chinese descent, are the regional tycoons because of their chains of malls in Central and Northern Luzon. (Photos grab from the internet except the first picture).

He even suspected that his driver was bribed by the other camp to incriminate him and change the momentum of his campaign strategies.

 “Kap, pagasulinahan natin ito mamaya. Problema pa natin iyan baka maubusan tayo ng gasolina pag umikot tayo,” the driver told him in the eve of the October 25, 2010 barangay election.

He said another two of his unwitting aides accompanied the driver.

Firearms "Planted" by the Police

After the clock hit midnight, the car was cruising to the gasoline station in the village but was immediately flagged down by policemen manning a newly installed check point.

The trio was ordered to disembark and frisk by the cops while their vehicle was searched and was found out to have automatic assault rifles without license.

 At 2 o’clock in the following early morning he and his lawyer were at the police station arguing with the chief of police that the guns were “planted” where the police could not even produce, son of a gun, the weapons.

But it was not the concern of the police and probably the mayor and his rival. What was in their mind was the hype and brouhaha the apprehension of his men and the seizure of the imagined guns could be a sensational news in that day’s prime time television and radio stations.

What aggravated the destruction of his integrity and the plunged of his popularity before the voters go to the polls was the series of pronouncements of the Election Officer of the Commission on Election to the media that he was already damaged and would be subjected to criminal charges and jail time even if he wins the election.

“Masakit. Ang Election Officer interviewed at the behest of the mayor. He said mabigat itong kaso ni Kapitan Gumarang kahit na manalo siya, paulit ulit pang sinabi iyon, hindi rin siya makakatapos dahil pa file din siya ng kaso,” he recalled.

He lost 500 votes among the 8,000 voters of the village to the come backing kapitan, thanks to the astute interference of the mayor.

He cited to us the reason of the determined intervention of the mayor: Lim smarted when he shifted his loyalty from him to Al Fernandez when the latter regained his mayoral post in 2007.

Lim was mayor of Dagupan in 2001 to 2007 and 2010 to 2013 after beating Fernandez in the 2010 election where voters saw his chutzpah how to defeat the seasoned politico Fernandez who had 12 years experienced as hizzoner (psst, it means HisHonortheMayor).

2010 Election: Benjie versus Al

When Lim challenged re-elective Mayor Al Fernandez in 2010 poll. I joined many of the stumps of the latter and his allies like congressional candidate Gina de Venecia, and Fernandez’s ticket lead by then vice mayoral bet Belen T. Fernandez, a powerful trader like Lim, and slate for the legislature.

I saw the miniscule crowd that attended the rally of Lim unlike the huge spectators that attended the stumps of Fernandez.

This was due probably to the intercession of the mayor for his kapitans who brought a huge number of people not to mention the supporters of the De Venecias and the bets for the city councilors whose surnames were identified with the old influential families in the city.
I though Al could handily defeat Benjie until the Murphy's Law came.

Until eight days before the May 10, 2010 Election, the wife of City Administrator Alvin Fernandez, the son of the candidate, and her supporters who were mostly women crossed path with the throng of Lim’s son Brian, his body guards, and supporters during their house-to-house visitation in Barangay Bolosan.

“Nang isang sasakyan ang namataang mabilis na nakasunod sa grupo at bigla na lamang siyang makarinig ng sigaw na “I-secure si Mam” kasunod pa ang pahayag na “takbo Mam, takbo Mam!” at nang lumingon siya mula sa likod ay may nakitang mga kalalakihang may bitbit na baril.

Sa takot para sa kanilang buhay at pagkataranta ay agad na tumakbo at nagtago si Ginang Fernandez kasama ang ilang kagawad at tanod ng lugar sa isang bahay roon,”an excerpt of a news in our newspaper Northern Watch.

Katherine, wife of Alvin, frantically called him through her mobile phone about Lim and his alleged armed company who chased them.

An angry Alvin Ferdnandez called the police where together they jumped off to the village and confronted Lim and his group. Through the threat of their firearms, as based on the narration of witnesses, ordered Lim and company to lie in a prone position.

Lim and company reported the threat, coercion, and manhandling to the police on that day. The group of Fernandez complained also on the same date about Lim’s false accusation and instead reported to the police of their harassment to Katherine and company.  

Both camps filled criminal cases with each other at the prosecutor’s office.

 In that May 2 incident, a livid Benjie Lim rushed to the office of then Chief of Police Lt. Colonel Sonny Verzosa about the assault by the Fernandez group to his son who was hit from the barrel of an Armalite rifle allegedly swung by Fernandez’s body guard Ador Malapit.

 Later television footage from the two regional TV networks based in the city showed Brian displayed to all and sundry the hematoma inflicted by the barrel. The people in and out of the city were shocked and scandalized by the brutality of the Fernandez group.

Alpatuan Fernandez and Ampatuans of Maguindanao 

“Alpatuan in Dagupan,” Mayor Lim and supporters cried, during their acrimonious march and intense rally complete with placards at the city plaza to compare Al Fernandez to the dreaded Ampatuan Clan of Maguindanao who just massacred 53 persons that included 34 reporters where they hurriedly buried through the use of a backhoe to cover the corpus delicti that would incriminate them for life sentences.

The mob of Lim also asked for the relief of Lt. Colonel Verzosa. Verzosa’s PMA classmate Police Provincial Director Colonel Percival Barba promptly relieved 11 SWAT men and policemen because of that hullabaloo after his initial investigation showed they did not lift a finger when Fernandez and company harassed the Lim’s group.

Until today, many people in Dagupan considered the marks on the body of the teary eyed Brian as shown at the boob tubes as for show to win the sympathy of the voters that should be voting for Al Fernandez.

 “Those were not hematoma those were ventosa,” similar quips by some people like Regional Examiner Editor Edwin Tandoc I heard and read at social media Facebook.

 Ventosa or cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine in which a therapist puts special cups on one’s skin for a few minutes to create suction.

But it was too late for De Venecia’s P.R woman Gypsy Baldovino to damage control the drama thrown like a bakis, er, monkey wrench by the Lims at the midst that flustered Al Fernandez and his son Alvin as they braced for the home stretch for the moment of reckoning of the Who’s Who in the mayorship of Dagupan City.

To cut the chase, Lim battered Al with 37,601  versus  34,443 votes or a lead votes of 3,158, Belen T. Fernandez became a vice mayor by thrashing out Danilo “Pakoy” Torio with 46,755 votes against his  12,890 votes, Ador was murdered by balaclava wearing gun men who ambushed him inside his vehicle with a military precision at Barangay San Miguel, Calasiao, Alvin Fernandez, a congressional bet now, reportedly hid in Tarlac to avoid the wrath of the Lims, Benjie Lim suffered a stroke at the eve of the 2013 mayorship poll versus Belen Fernandez who defeated him with more than 3000 votes, Lim died early this year, and Alvin and his brother Alfie did not only become allies of Brian Lim but Alfie became the vice mayoral bet of the former.

Salamabit, these were the roller coaster rides, the irony, the hilarity, and the skulduggery of Dagupan City’s politics and Mayor Belen should watch the lurking stunts that will be pulled up by Brian if the latter mulls to emulate the shrewdness of his father.

(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)