By Leonardo Micua

 

IF Comelec wants us to believe it is playing fair and square, it should send a show-cause order not only to  Alyansa senatorial candidate Camille Villar but to all others who seemed to have made a mockery of election laws by letting out so much of their pesos, hoping that this can win the election for them.

A video footage was presented by the Comelec purportedly showing Camille handling out cash awards to the raffle winners, which to my mind, is not something material that could warrant the filing of a formal charge of vote-buying against her. She was a guest and may only have been asked to do the honor of handing out the prizes, or that the video footage may have been taken before the campaign period.

Here in Pangasinan, it is the GuiConsulta that we would like the poll body to look into.

People were lining up under the blistering heat of the sun just to register and get a card marked as GuiConsulta, probably thinking that there’s money in the card, according to my source.

Rumors were rife that card owners are entitled to receive P200 to P500 each, to be drawn from the P300 million appropriated by the provincial board just for this purpose sometime in September.

But in reality, each one ought to receive a P1,700 capitation fund from PhilHealth, with the balance to be apportioned between the provincial government and the local government, with the former getting as high as 80 percent.

It is for this reason, according to Urdaneta City Mayor Rammy Parayno, that he and 17 other Pangasinan mayors distanced from GuiConsulta.

Many tagged this as plain vote-buying because of its timing and the family name of a politician was deliberately attached to the program.

Aside from putting the incumbent in strategical advantage over his opponent, freely using the resources and personnel of the province to endear himself more to the people, the provincial government need not have to spend P300 million if it did not intrude into PhilHealth’s mandate of registering would-be recipients of health services under the Universal Healthcare Act.

What a waste of cash!

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The choice of the Alyansa ng Bagong Pilipinas to stage their ‘Miting de Avance’ cum rally, in Dagupan was a sign that the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. officially recognizes the city’s strategic importance, having biggest voting population all over Pangasinan.

President Marcos was set to campaign for all his senatorial candidates, this time only 11, minus his Manang Imee.

The Alyansa preferred to hold its rally in Dagupan over Lingayen, presumably because although Gov. Ramon Guico Jr. and Vice Governor Mark Lambino are with the Nacionalista Party, a part of the Alyansa, Lambino’s father, Raul, is running for senator under the  Partido ng Demokrasya ng Pilipinas or PDP under former President Duterte. 

Mayor Belen Fernandez and Vice Mayor Bryan Kua of Dagupan City, along with their entire UnliSerbisyo team, are running under PBBM’s Partido Federal ng Pilipinas.

It was Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III who came personally to Dagupan last April 20 to arrange the venue of the rally at CSI Stadia with Mayor Belen.

This fueled a possible Estrella feud with Governor Guico, who reports said endorsed the reelection of Rep. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas in the sixth district against Conrad’s son, Gilbert. 

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It’s a walk in the park for Belen in this election. Her opponent, Celia Lim, even if she sells her Magic and use its proceeds in the campaign, will still have a difficult time winning. But will she do that?

Vice Mayor Bryan Kua, with the full backing of Belen, will make it against Celia’s son, former Mayor Brian Lim, who exposed himself in the campaign as really the one who orchestrated all the antagonistic moves of the seven majority councilors in the Sanggunian so that Mayor Belen will not succeed in her administration.

I hope most, if not all, of Belen’s candidates for the 10 seats in the city council will win. Belen needs a 10-zero in the council to step up the progress of Dagupan.

What the people of Dagupan is alarmed at is that four in the Lim family are running. Aside from the mother and son, Brian’s sister Irene is running for reelection as city councilor while their cousin Tope Lim Chua is also running for councilor.

It’s pretty dangerous to have just one family running Dagupan City.

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