By Leonardo Micua

 

THERE is no doubt that the announcement of COMELEC chairman Erwin George Garcia that barangay officials are allowed to campaign for their respective candidates in the coming election bodes well for the campaign of Mayor Belen Fernandez, Vice Mayor Bryan Kua and the rest of candidates of the UnliSerbisyo Team, and all other incumbent local officials in the country for that matter.

In previous elections, barangay captains and kagawads were hesitant to make their presence felt in any political rallies, until Garcia came out with a surprise announcement allowing them to campaign for their favorite candidates in this election.

Note that of the 31 barangay captains of Dagupan, 30 are die-hard supporters of Belen and her team, and only one is non-committal to her cause as he is a candidate of the opposition.

Nevertheless, one barangay captain opposing Belen and her team will not make any difference. Nor will it harm the chances of the UnliSerbisyo team from scoring a shut-out victory in the coming election, which is not remote at all.

Whether one likes it or not, allowing barangay officials to campaign for their favorite candidates  gives Belen and her entire team a solid advantage.

Their challengers are led by Celia and Brian Lim, the only mother-and-son team in Pangasinan and perhaps in Region 1 that I know running as a pair in this election.

No wonder, the Unliserbisyo Team gets mobbed by barangay folks everywhere they go because the captains down to their kagawads are mobilizing their entire communities to give Belen and her candidates a rousing welcome in a massive show of force, unseen yet with the other team.

It could be time for payback, knowing how barangay captains were selfishly denied prompt approval of their  projects, among them for flood mitigation, because of the policy of obstructionism of the seven opposition councilors.

Six of these councilors are seeking reelection and one is salivating to succeed Belen as mayor, believing that what they did for the last three years to make sure that Belen does not get a big number of  projects to crow about, would work.

Wrong. Belen was not born yesterday not to know she was the target of malevolent scheme by the opposing camp.

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In Urdaneta, which like Dagupan was placed under tight watch by the COMELEC due to  intense political rivalries, the incumbent Mayor Julio Parayno III has only 18 barangay captains under his wings with the 16 others of the 34 in the city behind Maan Tuazon, wife of Gov. Ramon Guico III.

That is considered about even. But Parayno is enjoying a big advantage, being a true, blue resident of Urdaneta from birth.

In contrast, Mrs. Guico is a resident of Binalonan, and Pampanga where her roots are, and not speaking nor conversant in the Ilocano dialect spoken by all Urdanetans.

But according to Parayno himself, the barangay captains supporting his opponent are getting many perks, including a monthly allowance and plenty of cans of hams and luncheon meat.

In contrast, the barangay kapitans supporting him are not getting much as he cannot afford to provide these.

During a well-attended campaign rally in Pinmaludpod a forthnight ago, Parayno grimaced at the harassment he suffered from the occupant of the capitol.

He said he had been winning several national and regional awards but never won a single award from the provincial government under the Guico administration.

His one-year suspension he says was orchestrated by the Capitol for an alleged violation of ease in doing business policy turned into a fiasco. He said in his one-year suspension the number one to sixth city councilors turned down the order to assume as acting mayor and acting Vice mayor.

He coaxed the number seven and eight councilors, who are also his political allies, to accept the posts, so that finally he and his cousin Vice Mayor Jimmy Parayno can consider themselves suspended by virtue of the order of the Office of the P resident.

But the final verdict will still be decided by Branch 47 of the RTC this April or early May, Parayno said.

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