Editorial
The merry-go-round
The smoke is beginning to clear. The men are separated from the boys, the women from the girls as attested to by their certificates of candidacy. And the local political landscape before us, indeed, looks very interesting, as it is promising.
For one, we are seeing the return of a number of politicians, some for the same positions that they previously held, in mix-match affiliations. The Liberal Party, for example, is led by the tandem of former Governor Victor Agbayani, whose father, Aguedo, had always been a Nacionalista stalwart. Both Cong. Agbayani and former Vice Governor Oscar Lambino used to head Lakas-CMD provincial chapter that now embraced incumbent Kampi’s Gov. Amado Espino Jr., who is gunning for his second term, as its own.
It would appear that incumbent Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr, is the one of the few old politicos who returned to his old party, the Liberal Party. He squares off with his predecessor, Mayor Benjie Lim, who was a Lakas stalwart but supported FPJ of LDP in 2004, and feels comfortable today running under the banner of the Nacionalista Party.
But more than just the happy party-hopping affiliations of our politicos, what we are seeing here is some kind of a battle between the old and the new, a grudge fight between the past and the present. For instance, a victory by Espino will be a confirmation of the Pangasinenses’ approval and satisfaction of his performance in the last three years. His defeat, on the other hand, in the hands of Cong. Agbayani will be a signal that the Agbayani stronghold in the province since the 1970s is well and alive in spite of Espino’s criticism of the Agbayanis’ type of governance. The same situation is true in many towns and cities.
Still, another interesting emerging battle is the battle of sexes, not just men vs. men or men vs. women but women vs. women. While the entry of more women in local politics is encouraging, their entry is still evidently largely aligned with their husbands’ political orientation. We’d like to believe that what is taking shape is not merely a battle of proxies (for their husbands) but a real battle of commitment and proferral to serve well, even far better than their husbands ever did.
The election is still five months away and the official campaign period won’t be starting until March, but already the political stage is set. If anything else, the local election will definitely not be boring.
Amid the dizzying merry-go-round ride of our politicos, let us take the Christmas lull and the campaign period as an opportunity to assess our own chances of seeing our desired reforms with the 2010 batch of candidates who have come forward with their promises.
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