By Mortz C. Ortigoza
My spook told me that the Resistance, er, Opposition in the huge Pangasinan province met Thursday’s night in a closed door meeting held at the residence of Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) and Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon Secretary Raul Lambino at Buenlag, Mangaldan in Pangasinan.
“Madaming baka doon sa likod,’ he quipped when I cried anak ng bakang dalaga scoop ko iyan mamaya ah.
He said I could write what he told me but I should hide him in anonymity.
Geez, I like the word “anonymity” it is one of the elements to parry any libel case cited by the Flips, er, Filipinos version's of the Shield Law Republic Act No. 1477 that says: “….reporter of any newspaper, magazine or periodical of general circulation cannot be compelled to reveal the source of any news-report …”
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GOVERNORSHIP BET of the opposition in Pangasinan is Fifth District Congressman Ramon “Mon-Mon’ Guico, III. Others in photo from top to bottom are the Matriarch of the powerful De Venecia Family former Congresswoman Gina de Venecia, Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon Secretary Raul Lambino, and Billionaire Bayambang Mayor Cezar Quiambao. |
The Yanks especially during the Watergate Scandal called this covert
news sourcing as Deep Background just like what fellow journalists
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of Washington Post getting dirt against the Nixon Administration from sore FBI Associate Director
Mike Felt aka Deep Throat.
Here were some of the colloquies agreed by Lambino, Fifth District Congressman Ramon “Mon-mon” Guico, III, his father and name sake Binalonan Mayor Monching, Bayambang Mayor Cezar Quimbao, former Alaminos Mayor Art Celeste, Former Congressman Mark Cojuangco, Board Member Von Mark Mendoza, and other personalities:
1) The opposition against the political juggernaut of former Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr, his governor son and namesake, his congressman’s son Jumel, and their allies agreed to field Congressman Guico for the governorship race next year against Governor Pogi Espino.
2) Lambino told the group that they will forego their moist eye to challenge Rep. Christopher “Toff’ de Venecia.
Hereunder are the nitty gritty of what transpired in that Central Pangasinan’s town:
The group in that meeting have been optimistic that they can break the monopoly of the Espino electoral power in Pangasinan because Mark Cojuangco had registered as voter in Lingayen and ready for the War of Financial Attrition against incumbent Second District Rep. Jumel Espino in the eight towns’ situs.
“He even told some of the folks there his readied hundreds of millions of pesos campaign chest. He inherited billions of pesos from his father Danding (Eduardo Murphy Cojuangco Jr. was the chairman and CEO of San Miguel Corporation -MCO),” my spy told me.
“Danding’s worth was U.S $1.4 Billion or P69 billion as posted by Forbes Magazine in 2019,” I told a Congressman closed to the Cojuangcos in my telephone conversation last week.
“No, much bigger than that. In the inheritance Gretchen (wife of Danding) got P95 billion while the six children in and out of wedlock divide the other P95 billion among themselves,” he said to me.
Quiambao, my spook said, is already secured in Bayambang. “He earns P200 million a month in his business nobody can dislodge him there,” after I told the source that a nephew of the Espino will be challenging the mayorship of the business czar named Cezar.
‘The Espinos would be in a REAL FIGHT. The Celestes are prepared with their monies in the First District, the Guicos have their wherewithal ready against the older Espino regaining his congressional seat, Mon-Mon will be shored up by the group who will chip-in millions of pesos to lock horns with Pogi. The Espinos will have a tough races next year,” after he told me that the hustings and the election of May 9, 2022 will be more exciting than the provincial races in 2013, 2016, and 2019.
Monies that will circulate in the once Kingdom of Lady Warrior Princess Urduja will be mind numbing susmariosep!
All gloves were off after that meeting.
The Guicos told them that last month they were ready to compromise with the Espinos where former Rep. Amado will not challenge Mon-Mon while the latter will not snare the governorship from Pogi.
‘After several proposed meetings did not push through through the intercession of a Western Pangasinan Mayor and a Political Consigliere and Cojuangco filing his registration as voter in Lingayen, Monching and Mon-Mon became pugnacious and itching to do battles with their hundreds of millions,” the insider disclosed over a pack of Jollibee’s Chicken Joy.
He said wife Ma-an Guico mans the citadel of the eight towns one city Fifth District while Monching acts as the Praetorian Guard on the rampart of the 24 villages first class town against any proxy candidate with a named like Ryan Gotoc, Monching’s nephew, commissioned by Urduja “Palace’ in Lingayen.
The intriguing news my spook gave me is their scheme on the 310,711 voters (Comelec 2018 data) four towns one city’s Fourth Congressional District in Central Pangasinan.
Lawyer Raul, according to the source, told the group that they will forego their moist eye to challenge Rep. Christopher “Toff’ de Venecia but in a quid pro quo: Manay Gina – the powerful matriarch of the De Venecia supports the gubernatorial bid of Ramon Guico, III.
“Malabo iyan. Loyal si Manay kay Espines. She is the District’s chair of the PDP (Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan) while Espino (the father - MCO) is the provincial boss of the PDP," the close supporter of former Congresswoman Gina told me on the phone after I called him to divulge what happened in the meeting in Mangaldan. With the recalcitrant De Venecias as based on the pronouncement of my source to compromise but instead gung-ho to continue the skirmishes – where we saw trolls lambasted mercilessly and with regularity the beleaguered Lambinos – the voters of the District will be manliket (Pangasinan word of “relish” or “happy” as dough will whet their hungry appetite especially amid the pandemic.
My poser on my spook's disclosure: 1) Why the Lambinos sacrifice their yearning for the District? Are they just magnanimous so De Venecia supports Guico and the latter defeat Pogi Espino? Was there a survey that they have no China Man's chance to beat the son of seasoned politiko five-time House Speaker Joe de Venecia – and Raul’s mentor, too?
(MY SOURCE IN THE DE VENECIA CAMP SAYS IN MAY 3 THAT HIS PATRONS HAVE NOT YET FINALIZED THEIR SHIFT FROM LAKAS TO PDP. IT MEANS THE QUID PRO QUO FROM LAMBINO - WHERE THE DE VENECIAS SUPPORT GUICO'S GUBERNATORIAL BID - HAS A BIG CHANCE TO HAPPEN)
Aside from telling me that Mark Lambino remains as the vice governorship candidate under Guico, the feelers that the group will talk with Manay Gina and Speaker Joe to persuade them – like you spend hundreds of millions of pesos versus Lambino or collaborate with our group? - will be Celeste and Quiambao.
How about you readers, if you’re in the shoes of the De Venecias will you grab the offer and save hundreds of millions of pesos campaign trove or stand by that nowadays scarce virtue called “loyalty’ to the party?
READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN:
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