My Exchanging of Notes with an Ex-General, Congressman

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When I dropped by at the Office of Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil, a former Police Three-Star General and nine years’ congressman, he asked me to join him and company in the long table in his office where he met and heard the gripes of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations (TODA) of the Capital Town versus the hefty fees and inconveniences brought by the New Motor Vehicle Inspection System (NMVIS) where Bataoil even wrote Land Transportation Office Head -Lingayen Ms. Aileen T. Peteros in February 3. Malacanang just suspended the implementation of the NMVIS as Filipinos nationwide raised furor.

“Anong balita Mortz?” he posed.

I told him that my source told me that the Celestes will be ironing the kinks as the May 2022 Election approaches on who will run for the mayorship in Bani town because Mayor Gwen Palafox-Yamamoto (hubby is a Navy officer and a PMYer like Bataoil) will be ending her nine years’ term next year.

HIZZONERS. Outgoing Bani, Pangasinan Mayor Gwen Palafox-Yamamoto (Left) and Capital Town Lingayen Mayor Pol Bataoil

“Iyong kadete natin sa PMA na kapatid ni Gwen General na daw (Army Brig. General Facundo Palafox IV, Brigade Commander of Mechanized Infantry Brigade based in Lanao del Norte -MCO) wala daw balak na maging successor ni Mayora,” I told Bataoil who was my superior at the Tactics Group in the Philippine Military Academy when I worked there as a civilian employee in the late 1980s.

“Ah general na siya. Ang father niya is Facundo ang first name”.

“Oo si Boying Palafox friends din ng mga media men because he used to work with a Marcos’ Minister. I heard he is a contractor".

I told him that some quarters in the First District wanted Bani No. 1 elected Councilor Ronaldo Catabay to run for mayor because Facundo is old and frail for the mayorship. The plan is for Gwen to run for the vice mayorship and after a term (three years to those who ain’t read the Local Government Code) both switch position. The downside however for this Solomonic Solution: Catabay is not moneyed to run against former Governor Amado T. Espino Jr.’s ally like Vice Mayor Benjie Navarro or his uncle the former mayor Marcelo Navarro Jr – whose family since the time of his father a Colonel (my father’s boss at PMA) reign the town for four decades. Ex. General Navarro is Espino’s classmate (and bunk mate at PMA as told to me by former Police three-star General Rey Velasco). The duo are members of PMA Class 1972.

So will wait how the political dilemma in the coastal town will be given a solution for the benefit of the alliance of the Celestes and the Palafox-Yamamoto versus the allies of former Governor Espino.

The former Governor and ex-Congressman is preparing to wage a huge personal war, my other source told me, against Fifth District Congressman Mon-Mon Guico who defeated him in the last year’s election.