By Mortz C. Ortigoza
BAYAMBANG – A feng shui expert told a billionaire-mayoralty bet in Bayambang, Pangasinan that October 13 was a lucky date to file his certificate of candidacy (CoC) at the Commission on Election (Comelec).
Feng shui is a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the
surrounding environment.
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| TICKET. The mayoralty ticket of Dr. Cezar Quimbao (4th from left) meets the press and his hundreds of supporters at the convention hall of his Royal Mall in Bayambang after they simultaneously filed their Certificate of Candidacies at the Commission of Election. Business tycoon Cezar S. Quimbao said that he should be filing his CoC on October 12 to avoid October 13, that represents misfortune, because of a business trip abroad on October 14. “ Sabi sa akin ng feng shui master, sir Quimbao mag file kayo, 13 is a good
day from 9 Am to 11 (Am) so nakita ninyo ho nag file kami. Nag simba kami,”
he told media men and his supporters at a press conference held at his Royal
Mall in the rustic town an hour after he and his ticket filed their CoCs at the
Comelec.
He said the feng shui expert told him October 13 showed that he would be
changing his career from being a businessman to a politician.
“Pero hindi ako magiging traditional politician. If ever given a
chance magalit na kung sino magalit, gagawin natin kung ano ang nararapat, wala
akong vested interest sa pulitika,” he told the roaring and applauding
crowd. Quimbao had already gave hundreds of millions of pesos to this first class
town’s coffer as business taxes after he registered here his mammoth businesses
like Strategic Alliance Holdings Inc , U.S $80 million Build-Own-Operate’s Land
Transportation Office-Information Technology’s Stradcom project , U.S$ 120
million Lares computerization of the Land Registration Authority, and others
that are mostly based in Manila. In one of these years he paid P20 million in business taxes that this town’s
used to buy several heavy equipment like bulldozers and funded some
infrastructure projects. He was known to bankroll the mayoralty victory of Mayor Leocadio de Vera in
1997‘s election and supported incumbent Mayor Ricardo Camacho during the latter
earlier term in office. But his relationship with the mayor turned sour when the latter was implicated
to a series of corruption issues. Quimbao sued Camacho at the Ombudsman after this town Councilor Levin Uy
discovered at a seminar in Baguio City that Camacho approved the release of
P1,896 million from the coffer to pay the 8,000 grills for an 8 kilometers
interconnected grills that Quimbao had already paid in the town’s bid for the
Guinness World Record’s longest grill during the fiesta’s street grilling
with 112,000 pieces of freshwater fishes.
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