High Stake ang 2022 Pres. Poll, Duterte Makikialam sa P’sinan Politics

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Ang presidential election sa susunod na taon ay high stake na parang life and death endeavor kay President Rodrigo Duterte. Sa election na ito dapat manalo ang kanyang heir apparent na anak na si Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte otherwise katakutakot na demandang non-bailable na murder cases ang sasalagin ng Pangulo at kanyang mga kasamahan. Ito ay may relasyon sa kanyang vaunted Tokhang o Anti-Illegal Drug Campaign kung saan libu-libong Filipinos ang namatay at maraming naniniwala na ito ay dahil sa utos ng Presidente.

Kahit na leading si Sara ng isang milya (24% voting) kay presidential wannabes Bongbong Marcos (13%) Senators Grace Poe at Manila Mayor Isko Moreno (12% each tied) sa latest ng polls ng Pulse Asia hinde puweding magkalmante si Pangulong Duterte dahil pag lumabas na ang mga demolition jobs gaya noong ginawa ng mga kalaban kay perennial surveys’ leader Jojo Binay na matapos siya ratratin ng paninira ng mga gustong mag presidente siya ay pinulot sa kangkungan na kulilat matapos ang 2016 Presidential Election.

HIGH STAKE 2022 ELECTION that President Rodrigo Duterte wants to see his daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte (top photo) wins against the likes of Senator Grace Poe and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno. Other photos below clockwise: Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) and Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon  Secretary Raul Lambino and Pangasinan Governor Amado “Pogi” Espino, III.

Dahil high stake itong national election, magiging high stake din ang interference ng Malacanang. Sa GUT FEEL ko, kasama ang sampung pinakamalaking vote rich provinces sa Pinas ang pakikialaman ng Power-that-be by the Pasig River. Ang Pangasinan ay may 1,946, 564 o almost 2 million voters (Comelec April 19, 2021) sa 58 million registered voting population ng Pilipinas (Comelec January 2021).

Ang may top 10 provinces out of 81 provinces na may pinakamalaking voters sa Pinas na puweding gamitan ng pressure ng Malacanang ay ang Cebu, Cavite, Pangasinan, Laguna, Negros Occidental , Bulacan, Batangas, Rizal, Iloilo, and Nueva Ecija.

Kailangan maging solido ang isang probinsiya para sa pagpapanalo kay Sara.

Kaya hinde maganda sa mata ng Malacanang pag naikasa na nila ang “at all cost Sara wins” sa mga ipinangangandalakan ng United Lights of Pangasinan (Ulopan) opposition composed ng grupo ni  Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) and Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon Secretary Raul Lambino, Abono Partylist Cong. Conrad Estrella, Fifth District Cong. Mon-Mon Guico, Bayambang Mayor Cezar Quiambao former Congressmen Mark Cojuangco and Art Celeste na kung saan mainit nilang  ikinakasa nila ang kanilang malakas na slate na magpapasakit ng ulo sa juggernaut political family ng Espino.

Nadinig ko sa isang kaibigan ng Opposition na ipinaplastada na nila ang Lambino for governor; Celeste, Cojuangco, Rachel Arenas, Toff de Venecia, at Guico sa Kongreso sa First, Second, Third, Fourth, at Fifth Districts respectively.

So ang Mon-Mon Guico for governor ay legerdemain (mahika) lamang ng Opposition na kunwari cancels na ang moist eye ng pamilya Lambino sa Fourth District ni Cong. Toff  para suportahan ng De Venecia si Guico?

Kung ako sa mga Espino ako’y mag la-lobby sa Malacanang at Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan - kung saan si President Duterte ay presidente at si Senator Manny Pacquiao ang chairperson - na tuluyang sirain na itong mga panaginip ng Ulopan para sa ikakabuti ni Inday Sara.

Ganito ang puweding maging script ng Palasyo: Kung hahayaan ninyong matuloy itong dream team ng mga milyonaryo at bilyonaryong na mga taga Opposition sa Pangasinan sa May 9, 2022 Local and National Election kakalas kami sa PDP at sasali kami sa partido nina Grace Poe, BongBong Marcos, Isko Moreno o Poe for president  and Moreno as tandem for vice president.

Kung ikaw si Duterte, oo ikaw itong nagbabasa ng blog kasalukuyan, papayag ka ba na ang bata mong si Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon Lambino ang opposition gubernatorial bet habang na ku krompomiso ang solidong boto sana na almost 2 million pandagdag sa pagkapanalo ni Sara at iwas kalaboso ang matandang Duterte at sina General Bato dela Rosa et alia?

Hinde papayag ang Malacanang ng ganito. Sa kanya dapat No Contest ang Pangasinan sa governorship at sa mga ibang congressional seats.

Kayang pagkukuwelyuhan ng Malacanang ang mga nag uumpugang pulitiko sa dating citadel ni Warrior Princess Urduja sa Northern Luzon.

Si Raul Lambino ay ilagay sa ayos at pagsabihan na huwag na manggulo dahil e-re-retain siya sa powerful niyang CEZA’s post pag si Sara na ang presidente. Tawag diyan quid pro quo o leverage.

Kung matigas din ang mga Espino at gustong labanan si Lambino at si Pangasinan First District Congressman Arnold Celeste at Fifth District Rep. Mon-Mon Guico, may panakot ang Malacanang. Stopped all the projects, upon their refusal from the offer of the Palace, up to the end of the term of Congressional Jumel Espino in noon of June 31,2020. Malaking mawawala diyan na bala sa eleksiyon. Ayaw ng mga congressmen iyan na mangyari.

You cannot fight City Hall, er, Malacanang especially if the occupant there carry carrot (Pork Barrel) and stick (pamalo).

Parang si U.S President Theodore Roseevelt threatening with his Big Stick Diplomacy ang mga recalcitrant countries na pag ayaw sumunod sa kanya andiyan iyong powerful U.S Navy na kayang bumbahin ang mga bansa nila at agawin sa kanila ang bahagi ng teritoryo nila gaya ng pagkuha ng Panama who revolted against Colombia in November 3, 1903 dahil masyadong malaki ang hinihingi ng huli na payment sa Panama Canal.

Nakikinita ko na itong mga tsumutsubibong pulitiko na binigkas ko sa itaas ay titiklop at magiging boring ang provincial at congressional election to some districts sa Pangasinan.

Ang magiging masaya dito ay mga botante sa Second District. Si Billionaire Mark Cojuangco dahil walang pang quid pro quo o pressure ang Malacanang sa kanya. With Tongs and Hammer si Mark C., eredero ni Business Tycoon Danding Cojuangco, ay makikipagbuno kay District Congressman Jumel Espino para maipaghiganti ang pagkatalo niya sa governorship sa kuya ni Jumel na si Pogi at sa asawa niyang Congresswoman Kimi Cojuangco na tinalo ni former Congressman Amado Espino, Jr. kung saan ang huli ay lumipat ng distrito from Second District to the Fifth District para lumpuhin lang ang mga Cojuangcos. Ginagaya ngayon iyan ni Mark C. sa paglipat din ng Distrito noong mag parehistro siya as voter sa Lingayen noong April 21 na na scoop ng blog na ito with matching photo.

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(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortzmarcelo@gmail.com)

De Venecia’s Leaders Upset on VG Lambino’s Remark

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

There were ruffled feathers to some supporters and leaders of Pangasinan Fourth District Congressman Toff de Venecia and his family when the province’s vice governor Mark Lambino told media men invited to his recent birthday bash held in a Japanese Restaurant in Mangaldan that there should certainly be a “black and white” in the congressional race in the one city four towns’ district.

When I asked yesterday afternoon radio commentator Ruel Camba - while we sipped our brewed coffee with politicians’ PR Man Professor Arnel Montemayor in one of the cozy places in the city - the veracity of the info I got earlier from the camp of the De Venecia, he said he was there in the party.

Black and white mean the Lambinos will have someone to challenge the sitting solon in the district and there will be loser and winner there.

PERSONALITIES in a fluid political situation in the mammoth Pangasinan Province. Above photo and clockwise: Pangasinan Vice Governor Mark Lambino, Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) and Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon Secretary Lambino Raul Lambino, and Pangasinan Fourth District Rep. Christopher “Toff” de Venecia.

“I even asked Mark if he is open to a meeting with Manay Gina (de Venecia mother of the lawmaker), he told us that he is open to anything but the decision should be subject to the approval of the group,” Ruel told me.

The group is the Opposition composed of his father Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) and Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon Secretary Raul Lambino, Fifth District Representative Mon-Mon Guico, Bayambang Billionaire Mayor Cezar Quiambao, former Congressman and Billionaire Mark Cojuangco, and former First District Representative Art Celeste against the well - oiled political machinery of the Espino family who are entrenched in the highest elective offices in Governor Amado “Pogi” Espino, III and his younger brother Second District Representative Jumel Espino and with the support of most of their allies in the 44 towns and 3 cities’ mayors that include their mother Priscilla “Mely” I. Espino who is the chief executive of Bugallon town.

The pronouncement of the Vice Governor that one of the De Venecias’ supporter told me he and colleagues felt uneasy could be probably part of the strategy one can get in the proposed parley to the other camp to succumb to what the first party wants.

The signal could be likened to this one: You would not capitulate then we commission somebody from our family to run and you spend tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos in the hustings.

I told more than a week ago in a blog/column titled: Lambino Cancels Cong. Bid, Asks De Venecia to Support Guico for Guv that Lambino, Fifth District Congressman Guico, his father and name sake Binalonan Mayor Monching, Bayambang Mayor Quimbao, former Alaminos Mayor Art Celeste, Former Congressman Cojuangco and the colloquies they agreed:

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.

I surmised that the Lambinos in the supposed negotiation with the De Venecia (I heard there was already a feeler not from the Quiambao-Celeste Group) have been looking in either of one of the following factors: That in case Mark’s wife lawyer Melanie will be pitted with almost six years solon Toff the former will have no China man’s chance to win the national plum’s post; the Lambinos were just magnanimous to buttress Guico’s chance in beating Pogi Espino for the governorship; or the higher interest of Raul Lambino for the governorship.

“He has a moist eye for the governorship. Raul needs the De Venecias support in the district to win the office,” he told me on the phone yesterday.

Even I know that Mon-Mon Guico prefers to be a re-elective Congressman in his district and was obliged only to tussle with Pogi to prevent the financial logistics of the Espino flooding his district and those of the districts Cojuangco and Celeste will run, I argued that Raul will not abandon his powerful post in Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) since Sara Duterte, as based on polls, has been leading a mile against Bongbong Marcos and Grace Poe. Unless he senses Sara doesn’t like him and will yank him after winning the presidency and put somebody for the fiduciary’s post.

“That  CEZA and Presidential Adviser for Northern Luzon’s posts are too powerful and the governorship is nothing,” I argued.

“The governorship is his crowning glory,’ my spook retorted on the other end of the line.

Since everything is FLUID and everybody can SPECULATE who will run to what post in the gargantuan province, the spy told me the following:

1) Former Governor Amado Espino, Jr dukes out with Mark Cojuangco (this can happen if Spines registered there before the May 9, 2021 deadline as resident and voter - Author); 2) Jumel tandems with Pogi for the governorship; 3) The opposition will convince either exiting Binmaley Mayor Sam Rosario or San Carlos City Mayor Ayoy Resuello to be the vice guv’s partner of Raul L. because the city is vote rich with  119, 210 voters (Comelec April 19, 2021 data) while Board Member VC Ventanilla run for the mayorship of the huge 86 villages’ central Pangasinan city (My analysis however: The Resuellos will not allow it. San Carlos too big, powerful, and indispensable the family will insist on former Mayor Bogs Resuello to run there for the hizzoner’s post. Vice governorship is a ho-hum post that lacks the glitz and trappings of power of a governor and even a mayor of a city. He is a spare tire that prays when will be the governor become incapacitated or dead which is one in a ten million chances to happen; 3) Second District Board Member Von Mark Mendoza – the Man Friday of Billionaire Cojuangco in the Second District – challenges the mayorship of Lingayen from incumbent Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil.

Oh by the way, Ruel – who was the former Joseph Goebbels of the provincial government - said to me that the Vice Governor told the reporters allied with their family in that bash that he was invited by former Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. for a tête-à-tête that ensued a week ago in one of the edifices of the provincial government in Lingayen.

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(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortzmarcelo@gmail.com)

Oposisyon sa SB dahilan hinde umuusad mga projekto sa Aguilar – Mayor

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

AGUILAR, Pangasinan – Kaya napapag-iwanan sa asenso ang bayan na ito dahil ang karamihan sa miyembro ng Sangguniang Bayan ay ayaw suportahan ang mga proyektong makakatulong sana sa ikakaunlad ng mga tao dito.

Ayon kay Mayor Roldan Sagles kontrolado ng mga alyado ng dating Mayors Eduardo Ballesteros at Ricardo Evangelista kaya may schism o pagkahati ang lehislatura at ehekutibo.

Ang political landscape sa SB ay dalawa lang sa siyam na mambabatas ang kasangga ng alkalde.

POLITICAL SPOUSES. Aguilar, Pangasinan Mayor Roldan Sagles and wife Inovilla M.Sagles. 

“Iyong five kay Ballesteros, iyong two kay Evangelista,’ ani ng mayor sa newspaper na ito.

“Si (Kristal Soriano) Ballesteros (Patrido Demokratiko Pilipino- Lakas ng Bayan, anak ng dating mayor-Balesteros, (Delfin), Dumlao (PDP), silang lima,” ang mga oposisyon sa bayan na ito dagdag ni Sagles na matagal rin naging vice mayor dito.

Noong May 19, 2019 Election, si Sagles (Nationalist People’s Coalition 6,718 votes) ay nakipagbuno sa apat na katungali niya sa mayorship na sina (Betty Ballesteros (PDP asawa ni dating mayor Ballesteros na nakakuha ng 6,501 votes), (Alberto Zamuco Independent 4,531 votes), Ex -Mayor Ricardo Evangelista (National Unity Party 3,662 votes), at Eduardo Queroda (Independent, 252 votes).

Ayon sa April 19, 2021 data ng Commission on Election itong central Pangasinan na bayan ay may 27, 497 voters at may populasyon na 41,463 ayon sa 2015 census ng National Statistics Office.

Ang Aguilar – isa sa pinakamahirap na bayan sa Pangasinan – ay pinagsisikapan ng butihing Mayor Sagles na mapaunlad sa mga iba’t ibang proyektong gusto niyang matamasa ng mga tao dito pero isang taon na lang bago matapos ang tatlong taon sa first term niya hirap pa rin siya na pakiusapan ang mga mambabatas na bigyan siya ng Resolutions para mailabas na ang pera sa kaban pantustos sa mga nakahilirang proyekto at makuha na sa national government sa Maynila ang pondo para sa ibang imprastraktura

Ang mga proyektong na natitingga at na-aprobahan ay ang P10 million park from Budget and Management  Secretary Wendell Abisado ay solar street lights, P3 million Corona Virus |Disease-19 (COVID) building and filling, road lines, multi-cabs, P30 million evacuation center in Barangay Buer, purchase of a P3 million worth dump truck

“Ano naman ang mga projects ninyo na bina-block ng Sanggunian dito?,’tanong ng writer na ito.

“Iyong solar street lights,’ sagot ni mayor.

Iyong ibang projects na pinapahirapan nila na magawa ni Sagles ay ang COVID building at dump truck pang karga ng basura galing sa dapat na pa repair ng P3 million na backhoe.

“Dinivert ko sa malaking dump truck para sa garbage truck. Hanggang ngayon wala pa,” ika ni Mayor noong nakapanayam siya ng newspaper na ito noong February 4, 2021.

Ayon sa alkalde ang mga multi cabs ay ebi-bid na sa Third Quarter (of this year) at sa regional (office) iyong mga evacuation center.

Dahil sa schism at dereliction of duties ng mga Councilors, ani Sagles mag susumbong na lang siya sa Barangay Assembly sa hinaing niya laban sa mga taga SB.

Ayon sa Local Government Code of the Philippines ang Barangay Assembly ay may power to“... (a) Initiate legislative processes by recommending to the Sangguniang Barangay the adoption of measures for the welfare of the Barangay and the city or municipality concerned; (b) Decide on the adoption of initiative as a legal process whereby the registered voters of the Barangay may directly propose, enact, or amend any ordinance; and (c) Hear and pass upon the semestral report of the Sangguniang Barangay concerning its activities and finances (Section 398).

Ayon sa source ng diyaryong ito, may possibilidad na sa darating na May 9, 2022 election si Kagawad  Inovilla M. Sagles, may bahay ng alkalde, ay tumakbong mayor at si Sagles naman ay baba para sa pagka vice mayor.

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