Tayug Mayor Tyrone Agabas, whose wife is Congresswoman
Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, told me he was a son of a mayor, too, in the
rambunctious Abra province. His father was the chief executive there from 1960s
to 1970s.
He thought when he lived in Manila and studied law there
at San Beda College he would be shunning away from politics, but he was wrong.
“Marlyn who was my
law classmate had a political lineage in Pangasinan that smitten her thus here
I am now in politics,” he told me.
The Congresswoman came from the illustratious family of
the Primicias who produced a governor, congressman, and senator in the
humongous province.
Tyrone used to be a Board Member while his wife Marlyn
was the provincial vice governor, before he became a hizzoner of the Wild-Wild
West Tayug town where its former mayor the tough Guerrero Zaragoza was
assassinated.
“In my watch Tayug
became a peaceful town,” Mayor Agabas said.
I was all ears with the mayor when he told me about the
political families and supporters of former Abra Governor Vicente Isidro Valera
and Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin where the former was implicated for the murder of
the latter.
He said one of these families is a relative.
I could not fail not to mention or think about Abra, I
told him, whenever election in Pangasinan looms because some mayors in the
province either hired goons from the place or in Ilocos Norte.
***
When I told recently BDO-Dagupan City’s manager Henry
Arce, a resident of Ilocos Norte, about the Ilocos goons hired by Pangasinan’s
politicians, he told me Ilocos politicians hired Abra goons during election
barnstorming and voting.
I wrote a column on these goons when a mayor in Central
Pangasinan told me he hired those guys but he provided them with their long and
short lethal firearms.
Here’s an excerpt of that column I wrote after a
Pangasinan mayor was assassinated:
“Before a mayor of Pangasinan, who allegedly
maintained sicarios (hit men), went to Infanta recently to pay his last respect
to the slain Mayor Ruperto Martinez, I went near his van.
He showed me two Russian-made folding- type Kalashnikov
AK-47s sprawled at the floor of his car.
“Why not use those
M-15 A4 Carbine (baby M-16 Armalite used by U.S special forces in the battles
in Afghanistan and Iraq) your family has been giving as gift to political
friends,” I asked him.
He just laughed. He told me AK-47 (that has a 100-round
detachable box and drum style magazine) is much powerful than M–15.
When I told this story two day later to a high elective
official in Central Pangasinan who used to hire close-in body guards from
Ilocos every election time, he told me he sold all his M-16s he bought before
in lieu of the much powerful AK-47.
I could not agree more. This Russian made assault rifle
invented by an Ivan Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov has been known to have the
same fire-power with the longer M-14 rifle (first entered service in 1957 and
was used by the U.S Marines when they set foot in Vietnam in the early of
1960s).
According to the online Wikepidia: “The main advantages
of the Kalashnikov rifle are its simple design, fairly compact size, and
adaptation to mass production. It is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to
clean and maintain. Its ruggedness and reliability are legendary. The AK-47 was
initially designed for ease of operation and repair by glove-wearing Soviet
soldiers in Arctic conditions. The large gas piston, generous clearances
between moving parts, and tapered cartridge case design allow the gun to endure
large amounts of foreign matter and fouling without failing to cycle”.
***
To would- be- assassins, who would emulate how Mayor
Martinez was killed in broad daylight; just take a pre-caution my dear killers.
The Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Montero, or the Starex Van you want to
ambush has probably a cache of full-jacket Kalash versus your .45 caliber hand
gun.
Susmariosep,
that would be a mismatch”.
