By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA
During the Christmas party held at the Mermaids in Baywalk, Lingayen through the generosity of Pangasinan Governor Monmon Guico and the local government unit’s provincial information office (PIO), I had a lengthy animated conversation with media practitioners while we quaffed booze and gastronomically enjoyed the limitless array of sumptuous foods.
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| DUKES OUT. Former Health Secretary Francisco” Pincoy” T. Duque (left photo) and former Pangasinan 4th District Cong. Gina de Venecia. |
One of the respected members of the
fourth estate told me - when I inquired – that Dagupan City’s Councilor Celia
Lim will run for the mayorship of the coastal city in the May 2025 election
while her son former Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim will duke-out with former
Congresswoman Gina de Venecia for the four towns and one city's Fourth District.
“Tama iyong
sinulat ko na si Brian isa sa probable candidate for the congressional seat,” I said on
my December 3, 2023 blog’s at mortzortigoza.blogspot.com.
But seasoned radio broadcaster
and Capitol Post’s Editor-in-Chief Ruel Camba told me that the candidate that
will give Gina a run for her money would not be Brian but former Health
Secretary Francisco ”Pincoy” Tiongson Duque who was at the citadel guarding when
the pandemic Corona Virus-19 scourged the country in March 9 2020 (start of the State
of Public Health Emergency) with countless death of Filipinos that bellied up too the economy until its mitigation and
control in July 22, 2023.
“Can you
still remember that Pincoy’s factotum vie for the congressional office versus
the last term Cong. Toff de Venecia in the May 9, 2022 election?” the salt
and pepper haired Ruel posed to me.
“Oo, si Manny de Guzman ka barangay ko dating driver ng mga Duques,” I quipped
in the vernacular about Pinggoy’s moist eye for the national elective post in
Pangasinan even before the 2022 election.
The substitution plan – where everybody
then waited with bated breath – did not push as Pincoy finished his almost
five years stint at the Department of Health until President Rodrigo Duterte relinquished
his post at noon of June 30, 2022 to incoming President –elect Ferdinand “Bongbong”
Marcos, Jr.
Duque became Philhealth President
(2001-2005) under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Arroyo’s
Health Secretary (June 1, 2005 – September 1, 2009) and became the Chairman of the Civil
Service Commission (February 3, 2010 – February 2, 2015).
Duque’s father and namesake
nicknamed Paco - the former governor of Pangasinan – was Health Secretary
during the term of Gloria’s President-father Diosdado Macapagal from December
30, 1961 to December 30, 1965. I know this because I taught political science
and economics at the tertiary of Lyceum Northwestern University (owned by
Pincoy and his siblings) in 1990 to 1999 while the dapper and jazz loving Pincoy
was one of the executives there under the stewardship of his older brother and
media friendly school's president Ado Duque – a former U.S Air Force’s surgeon.
I agree with the prognosis of
Ruel Camba.
Pound for pound or hundreds of millions of
pesos for hundreds of millions of pesos of the de Venecias – who lorded the
district for 33 years since patriarch former Speaker Joe de Venecia became a
Congressman in December 30, 1969 -, Pinggoy could give the De Venecias a run for
their money.
Susmariosep! I still
remembered what I wrote before about pyrrhic victory when I was goading former Governor and Congressman Amado T. Espino, Jr. to duke out with Gina in the 2019 election on my Nov. 9, 2017
blog’s Espino Urges: Challenge the De Venecias, Arenases, here’s the excerpt of
that op-ed article that saw print at Northern Watch Newspaper where I’m the
present Editor-in-Chief:
“You know what Pyrrhic is? I posed to Ruel while we imbibed negative
8 Celsius or zero cold bottle of Red Horse beers.
“It’s a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that
it is equivalent to defeat. One could be victorious but the heavy toll negates
a true sense of achievement,“ he retorted.
“Ya, it was about King Pyrrhus of Epirus whose army was tragically
damaged in defeating the Romans at the Battles of Heraclea and the Asculum
hundreds of years ago,” according to the pambalot ng tinapa I accidentally
read,” I said.
Son of a gun! Who was that U.S President
who quipped after he won his Pyrrhic reelection? "Another victory
like this and our money's gone!"
Wherewithal versus wherewithal
Pincoy Duque has more campaign chest compares to Mall Czar Brian Lim – whose
weakness financially was seen in the last few days of the 2022 mayorship acrimonious
derby where he was trounced out big time by come backing former mayor and Mall
Czarina Belen T. Fernandez who was bursting with unlimited dough, err, cash
that awed and shocked Brian and company.
But the “aging” Gina de Venecia
would defeat both of them if Brian persisted to run for the powerful post that
could divide his votes with that of Pincoy at the advantage of the already
entrenched De Venecia's matriarch.
READ MY OTHER BLOG:
MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.
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