Think about it
Espino will tilt balance in PCL race
By Jun Velasco
“The integrity of men is to be measured by their conduct, not by their professions,” Janius
FORMER DENR Secretary Eleazar P. Quinto sent us this text message: “Thanx a lot for mentioning me and my wife, Rina, in your well-read column.
May I request though that a rectification be made that my wife, Rina, is the daughter of Cesar Concio and Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara. By dint of destiny, Cesar Concio, a former TOYM awardee, is now married to ABS-CBN president Charo Santos-Concio, a former beauty queen.
Thank you and best regards.”
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You should have grasped and felt the depth and magnitude of a world-respected spiritual leader’s grief and anger at the “intricate web” of corruption that has descended on the P10-billion pork barrel scam masterminded by a supposed simpleton, Janet Lim-Napoles.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer must have been irked, too, by the “crime against humanity” as it showed in graphic photos an angry Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle. The Cardinal urged the abusive and unscrupulous politicians “to visit the slums and experience what it was like to be poor.
Whenever is involved there, I appeal to you, visit a community of informal settlers…walk there at night and you will see in the sidewalk the families who open these cartons on which they would sleep,” Tagle said.
It is almost an ordinary fact of life that in our corrupt society Napoles—or, better yet — this phenomenon of unimaginable scam—couldn’t have happened without a flawed system and corrupt officials abetting it.
There should be public outrage on against this abuse. For a start, under a Daang Matuwid President, the first concrete and solid action we can undertake is to scrap the pork!
The rest will follow!
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In Pangasinan, our politicians are back in their favorite circus. How so?
On Monday, all municipal and city councilors will meet at the Sison Auditorium in Lingayen to elect the new officers of the Pangasinan Councilors League headed by the beauteous Councilor Rosalie Ellasus of San Jacinto town.
Known candidates for president are Councilors Ramon Bataoil of Lingayen and Shiela Marie-Perez of San Manuel. Shiela’s elder brother is Dong Perez, who won as PCL president in 2010, but failed in his bid to become a regular member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
From the looks of it, the PCL showdown is a testing-the-waters mechanism for the gubernatorial race in 2016, between congressman Pol Bataoil and Party-list Rep. Conrad Estrella III.
Will it be a Bataoil-Estrella showdown?
Our cumpadre amiable Pol would try to beg off citing 2016 as a “still distant exercise,” but his omnipresence in towns not in his district for some time now speaks louder.
On the other hand, Conrad’s joining the party-list vehicle in the midterm polls has already spilled the beans. If the duel pushes thru, it would be like pitting the west and the east.
It’s this demographic confrontation that could kindle the embers of a possibly slumbering giant in Mangaldan in General Arturo Lomibao who did not really come out and fight to win for vice governor last May 13.
Most everyone knows that he did not spend a fortune that stirred up speculations he just joined the exercise to for the heck of it… just to feel the public pulse.
The PCL fray could create bruises in the Bataoil and Estrella camps. Lomibao, on the other hand, would then be unscathed and launch a gubernatorial foray undisturbed.
Ramon Bataoil’s late entry may give us an idea that it was made after careful and soulful decision after all angles were analyzed and studied. It’s a given in General Bataoil’s personal trait that he couldn’t be a spur-of-the-moment man. He weighs things very carefully. Which therefore should show the seriousness of the brother Ramon’s act.
From any angle, these developments augur for a vibrant democracy and assurance of Pangasinan’s sustained political excellence begun by Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr.
By the way, where is Espino in the picture?
Where he stands will easily tilt the balance.
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