By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
Former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano would not delve thoroughly on my poser as I hit his former colleagues at the House of Senate - whom former Speaker Panty Alvarez derisively called Mabagal na Mataas na Kapulungan (Slowpoke House of Senate) - were compromised by the lobby monies of Filipino owned corporations that disliked competition with foreign owned rival businesses to the still un-acted since time immemorial Amended Public Service Acts (Bill No. 78) passed by the House of Representatives when Cayetano was still the Top Whip of the August Chamber.
“Well, siguro it’s the time for unity. Kaya ako, I’d rather not criticize any institution at this point in time. But yes, there are urgent legislation na kailangan gumalaw,” he told me during his visit last Friday in Dagupan City for the distribution of grocery items and shelling out generously P500 bill for the “taxi fare” and “pang Jollibee” to each of the more than a thousand of the ecstatic barangay health workers famously known with its acronym’s BHW, nutrition scholars, and service point officers.
Damn, that was more or less P1 Million if the grocery stuffs each cost too P500.
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SAVOIR FAIRE. Former House of Representatives’ Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano (standing) gives his savoir faire to thousand of the “ecstatic” barangay health workers (BHWs), nutrition scholars, and service point officers in Dagupan City, Pangasinan when he “barnstormed” the coastal city by giving financial aid and bags of grocery items the media estimated to worth more or less P1 million. Seated behind the Taguig-Pateros Congressman and former Senator is (from left to right) City Administrator Vlad Mata, Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim, Taguig City Representative Lany Cayetano (spouse of the former Speaker), City Councilor Celia Lim (mother of the Hizzoner), former City Councilor and Actress Maybelyn dela Cruz- Fernandez. Those luminaries who are not in the photo are National Dairy Authority Director Ralph Du, City Councilor Michael Fernandez, and Special Assistant to the Hizzoner’s Red Erfe Mejia. Photo by Mortz C. Ortigoza
“Mga taong ang qualifications ay “mahaba ang pasensiya at mabilis tumakbo” sa pagtulong sa barangay,” he humored the workers in-front of him and under the snazziest white canvas covered court city plaza while his amused spouse and Taguig City Congresswoman Lany Cayetano, Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim, National Dairy Authority Director Ralph Du, City Administrator Vlad Mata (ramrod in his Lieutenant Colonel Reserved Marine’s camouflage), City Councilor Celia Lim ( the mommy of the Mayor), Special Assistant to the Hizzoner’s Red Erfe Mejia, City Councilor Michael Fernandez and spouse the actress and former city councilor Maybelyn dela Cruz - Fernandez where seated behind him.
“We
used to buy stuffs at your Davao Fruits (stall),”
the dapper Director Du told me when I bumped into him and Mejia as they
egress with Mayor Lim from the City Museum and before Cayetano’s
savoir faire with the hoi polloi.
ng ang qualifications ay “mahaba ang pasensiya at mabilis
tumakbo” sa pagtulong sa barangay,”
he humored the
workers in-front
of
him and
under the snazziest white canvas covered court city plaza while
his amused spouse and Taguig City Congresswoman Lany Cayetano,
Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim, National Dairy Authority Director
Ralph Du, City Administrator Vlad Mata
(ramrod
in his Lieutenant Colonel Reserved Marine’s
camouflage),
City Councilor Celia Lim (the mommy of the Mayor), Special
Assistant to the Hizzoner’s Red Erfe Mejia, City Councilor
Michael Fernandez and spouse the actress and former city councilor
Maybelyn dela Cruz - Fernandez where seated behind him.
By the way, my son Jigger brought one kilo per plastic bag of Davao Class-A Pomelos where I gave - of course for free hahaha! - Cayetano and each of his staff led by P.R Women Ofel M. Rodeles and Mae Casabar and Mayor Lim.
***
Was the eloquent sartorially elegant and now slimmer Cayetano ingratiating with the BHWs, city hall workers, and the members of the Fourth Estate whom some of them he dined earlier at a prominent seafood house in the coastal city because the senatorial race showed he was at No.6 (49.33 % of the respondents) at the polls?
It was done by data analytics firm’s WR Numero Research and published last February 1, 2022 by the Philippine Star Newspaper for the Top 20 wannabes topped by Sorsogon Gov. Francis Escudero ( 64.6 %) and Sen. Joel Villanueva (56.6%) at Numbers 1 and 2 respectively and where Representatives Michael Defensor (42.7%) and Lito Atienza (40%) at Nos 11 and 12.
 |
| A village health worker (2nd from left) receives a dole-out from former Senator Cayetano. The recipient is flanked by the solon and Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim. |
“Watch Mark Villar (President Rodrigo Duterte’s only Cabinet Secretary who clings at No. 16) but spike up in the campaign trail and the vaunted financial juggernaut of his family to pay those expensive television election ads,” I told Ofel in Bisaya who used to be the P.R person of then Manny Villar.
Yellow Party er Liberal Pary high priest reelective Senator Mr. Sharon Cuneta (Sen. Francis Pangilinan) settled poorly at No. 15 (36 %) of the respondents and is doomed to emulate fellow L.P reelective Senator Bam Aquiono who loss in the 2019 Election.
***
Here’s what Alan Peter -who said he and Vlad Mata kept their secrets in the University of the Philippines when they were students - told us selected media men who covered his generosity (he done it for the various sectors before the 2016 National Election where he ran for the Vice Presidency under Rodrigo Duterte) to the city government’s workers.
“That’s why naglagay na kami sa Bayanihan – 2 ng pondo para doon, nade-delay lang. So kami sa maliit naming paraan, sa grupo namin na mga Congressman nag ambagan and then iyong ibang community leaders nagbibigay. We just want to show government that kailangan ng bayanihan. but ang malaking pera talaga nasa gobyerno. We will continue to go around sa abot ng makakaya and tumulong ng konti, we could just send it pero nakikita po namin na nakakataas ng moral pag nakikita nila na ang mga officials nila are there for them, naiintindihan ang problema nila”.
Bayanihan -2 is the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act officially designated as Republic Act No. 11494. It is a law enacted in September 2020 granting President Duterte additional authority to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines.
Cayetano added that he was zealous on the ten thousand pesos he wanted to give to every Pinoy family to help them cope with the unabated rise in the prices of basic commodities.
****
I should be asking the former Speaker a lot of questions but I deemed it urgent to ask him “this Life and Death” poser about the economics fate of the Flips, er, Filipinos on the procrastination and the perceived vulnerabilities of the members of the Senate to be susceptible to the bribe from the local big businesses of hundreds of millions of pesos for their reelection bids.
These bids are translated into the very expensive election ads on TV, free planes and choppers as they barnstorm the jungle asphalt cities and the boondocks in the archipelago.
 |
| Arrays of bags and cartoons of groceries for the hoi polloi of Dagupan City. |
Our pathetic export figure - where we are at the cellar among the ASEAN-6 - can be blamed to the inaction of the Senators since the time of President Benigno Aquino and the stints of Speakers Alvarez, Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, and Speaker Alan Cayetano.
Are we a Nation of Losers? Kahit sa attraction of foreign tourists before the dreaded pandemic’s COVID- 19 rampaged in the country we were at the tail-end against Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia in snaring the monies of these folks.
Basahin ang data (in billions of dollars) I got from Globaledge.MSU.Edu sa ilalim para mamulat sa hubad na katotohanan:
1. Singapore’s Total Exports (2019) U.S $390,331,757,374
2. Vietnam’s Total Exports (2019) $264,610,322,69
3. Malaysia’s Total Exports (2019) $238,088,652,110
4. Thailand’s Total Exports (2019) $233,674,439,906
5. Indonesia’s Total Exports (2019) $167,002,880,981
6. Philippines’ Total Exports (2019) $70,926,674,490
Blamed our pathetic export figures in 2019 and even decades before because foreign direct investment (FDI) would not come here --we blamed the inaction of the Mabagal na Mataas na Kapulungan.
Was it all about the lobby and campaign funds as the reason for our Senators’ recalcitrance not to open the economy to the more efficient 100 percent owned FDIs that will spike jobs and revenues for our people and the government?
Read my other blog/column:
Sen. Poe: Power ng TV Ads, Pagpasa ng PSA
(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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