By Gonzalo Duque 

 

A lot of things have been happening in the national scene lately.

The reorganization of the Senate is one instance that happened preparatory to the 2025 local, congressional and senatorial elections.

There will be a lot of realignments to be seen soon. Of course, many of the possible aspirants will be anointed by their respective presidential candidates, namely Sara Duterte, Martin Romualdez, Raffy Tulfo, Chiz Escudero and maybe Leni Robredo.

It is only natural that the presidential wannabes will actively campaign for their respective local candidates.

The question is, who among the possible presidential contenders will be the American boy or girl, or the Manchurian candidate?

In our fourth congressional district, I heard that Brian Lim is being groomed by the group of Sara Duterte to run for Congress again all comers.

Manay Gina de Venecia will be asked to run under the Marcos banner, while Raul Lambino may also aspire under the wings of Marcos.

Among the three possible congressional candidates, Gina de Venecia carries the  P500 million question.

But my thought on the matter is Brian or Celia will ultimately settle for the mayoralty in Dagupan City under the Child and Mother tandem or versa (Mother and Child). Too bad for Celia, she is among those opposing the establishment of the Mother and Child Hospital in Dagupan.

In my opinion, Alfie Fernandez and other Vice mayoralty candidates will only be defeated if the LiFe tandem will continue to be their team.

That means, for a change, it’s going to be a Lim-Lim all over again.

Lim-Lim is not new. Recall that the Lim patriarch (Benjie) run for reelection with Brian as his vice mayor against Belen Fernandez and Michael Fernandez. Belen defeated Benjie but her running-mate Michael lost to Brian.

Win or lose, the Child and Mother tandem will be a formidable one.

This means that for her to stay in power, Mayor Belen will need all her allies to sustain her incumbency.

She will need to marshal her candidates and should choose only the good ones who can really deliver if she and her Vice Mayor, Bryan Kua, want to get re-elected. Yong mga kandidato niya, dapat matibay.

She will need more allies in the Sanggunian supportive of her programs and projects till year 2028 which were spelled out under her Comprehensive Development Plan for 2023 to 2028 that is yet to be passed by the majority in the SP.

At this point, it is expected that the seven councilors in the majority will continue to oppose the approval of her Comprehensive Development Plan consisting of flood mitigation projects, building of more roads and repair of the dilapidated ones, construction and repair of school buildings, mass housing for city hall employees and homeless citizens, social programs for indigent senior citizens, livelihood programs, more community health centers, and yes the Mother and Child Hospital.

While various draft ordinances and resolutions are yet to be acted upon by the Sanggunian majority will advance the leadership of Mayor Belen, the Magic Seven will try their dumb best to oppose whatever the mayor will do to stop her from gaining more brownie points leading to the 2025 election.

It will be interesting to observe the forthcoming election in Dagupan City.

You know my friends—politics is always selfish, not selfless. Ganyan lang yan. Kung ang isa ay wala nang silbi, he will be gone with the wind. That’s natural.

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