Punchline
A “crown prince” in the making?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
Up until last week, I simply could not put a face to a possible successor to Speaker Joe de V in the 4th district in 2010. Then, the image of an articulate yuppie whose unkempt long hair (Will somebody please hand him a jar of gel!) loomed on the TV screen and frontpages of national dailies.
Bingo! The boyish face of Joey de Venecia, the once prodigal son and namesake of the Speaker, suddenly fit the image to a T. And to Joey’s credit, Speaker JdV never did raise the possibility of naming him a possible successor to whom he can bequeath his political throne in the province.
But at this stage of the game, the young JdV is still focused on surviving the onslaught brought about by his unexpected disclosure re the presence of FG Mike Arroyo in a meeting with ZTE officials where he was given a totally unexpected dressing down to “Back off”!
For sure, local politics is the farthest from his mind to this day so let’s just wait and see if the “crown prince” will be up to it.
***
A DIFFERENT JDV. What can make the young JdV a viable and worthy successor?
He appears to be straightforward and is not completely comfortable dwelling on political affairs. He is candid about his past mistakes, his misadventures as a misguided young, yet proud to recall how he learned from it all.
He is obviously still protective of Mrs. Gloria Arroyo, perhaps at the instance of his father, but he has no problem dishing out the truth with no regard to where it could bring him at least that’s how he impresses most people today.
It has been an impressive performance so far, indeed, considering his father is one of the staunchest defenders of Mrs. Arroyo, she who is perceived to have lied to our people countless times. (Note the children of other politicos now in politics, how quickly they have shamelessly surrendered all their learnt values in exchange for money and power).
He could have taken the easy and comfortable path – to pocket the $10 million bribe and to protect his dad’s turf – but he didn’t.
Could he be made of a different stuff?
***
THE LIBERATED JOE. In fairness to the Speaker, who is now being given hellish days by his detractors for not stopping his son from going public with his personal dilemma and misery inflicted on him by his own political patrons, I can sense the heavy moral burden he has carried over the decades.
By maintaining that he is standing by his son Joey, I sensed that he felt a liberation of sort, to finally do what is right as dictated by his conscience. For once in his life, he did (through Joey) what he thought was right, damn his traditional politics that imprisoned him for so long.
While I share his joy of having a son like Joey, who showed what it’s like to be a true De Venecia, not a trapo De Venecia, I can only sympathize with the old JdV as he now fights for his own political survival after the Joey episode.
But trust the old crusty JdV, he is not going away with his tail between his legs. Images of his signature Dopey-ears and droopy eyes will continue to haunt his political detractors in their nightmares, that’s for sure. He has enough aces up his sleeves to keep Malacanang behaved through out.
Watch him move with his newfound adrenalin rush!
***
THE BIG 3X RIP-OFF. Again, I sincerely regret that I have not been found wrong about the conspiracy that attended the anomalous Barangay Awai land deal. How I wish my fears about it had not been proven true for that would mean the city had not completely lost in the deal, never mind that the city still doesn’t have its promised sanitary landfill.
But given the documents now in the hands of our “Mr. Spademan”, City Legal Officer George Mejia, it is now official that the city of Dagupan lost all P16 million to another instance of pure unadulterated graft and corruption! And just as I had long suspected, it was the Big 3X (ex-Mayor Benjie Lim, Ex-councilor Teofilo Guadiz III and Ex-city administrator Raffy Baraan) who ripped off the Dagupenos in full daylight, and right under their very noses!
It will be recalled that the Big 3X had accused The PUNCH for the city’s failure to construct the sanitary landfill for exposing the “imagined anomalies”. Today, we find out that they always knew that it was never possible to construct the sanitary landfill even before the city’s P16 million check was fully paid to their dummy, a certain “Jose Mariano Cuña”.
What criminal gall!
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BLATANT LIES AND DECEPTION. The paper trail on the Awai land deal revealed the following (see chronology of events in this issue):
1. One Deed of Absolute Sale dated Dec. 18, 2001 between Jose Mariano Cuña and Estrella Sangalang as submitted to the BIR stated a sale of P70,000 for the whole 30 hectare property! Another deed bearing the same details was submitted to the Dept. of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board with one difference: the sale amount was quoted at P7,000,000! Both deeds were notarized in Binmaley by Notary Public Joseph C. Ferrer!
2. The ratification of the sale between the city and Mr. Cuna by the Sanggunian Panglunsod as manipulated by the Big 3 Xs was done on February 7, 2002. Yet the sale between the city and Mr. Cuña was actually inked on April 11, 2002!
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DEAL OR NO DEAL. The Fernandez administration might feel burdened that it opened a Pandora’s Box or unduly stirred a hornet’s nest given its dilemma today – whether to prosecute the Big 3X or to just move on like nothing happened.
It might help Mayor Al, his son Mr. Avenger Alvin, Veem Belen and the rest of the councilors to consider the following:
To prosecute today will 1) put a cut-off on the losses of the city and clearly attribute the blame to the Lim administration; 2) send a signal to present set of officials/employees in the Fernandez administration that it will not countenance graft and corruption; 3) set a standard for a reform-oriented governance for future generations; 4) give hope to Dagupenos that integrity is still held sacred by and among city’s public officials, and 5) establish the norm for accountability and transparency in governance.
To move on like nothing happened will 1) validate the public perception that the present crop of officials who were part of the Lim administration were equally guilty as the Big 3X; 2) give impression that corruption of such nature will continue under the Fernandez administration; 3) give rise to suspicion that the Fernandez officials were bought off by the Big 3X; 4) affirm cynicism expressed by Lim officials that all public officials are all alike they will steal when they can and will always protect their kind, and 5) signal that there is no hope for political reform in this generation and the next.
So, what shall it be for Mayor Al? Deal or No Deal?
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/punchline/)
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