Superior Funds Key to Electoral Victory

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The general rule in the Philippine election: The one who has the gold wins.

The exception to the rule: When a mayoralty wannabe in central Pangasinan duked it out with the missus of the long reigning hizzoner, the spouse in early 2010s spent P500 to vote buy while the young amiable village chief spent only P200 to ingratiate with the voter. El Kapitan susmariosep won with a staggering lead votes!

GMA-7 TV evening news likewise quoted recently the wife of slain Batuan, Masbate Vice Mayor that despite the tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos spent by Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s Board of Director Sandra Cam for her son’s vice mayoralty bid against Vice Mayor Charlie Yuson III in the 2019 election, the son – despite her wherewithal allegedly derived from her powerful post – still lost the poll.

Philippine currency One Thousand Peso bills - the magic wands that win the bid of a politician in the Philippines for an elective post. Despite the low pay of a public office, moneyed Filipinos spend millions of pesos to win it because they considered the position as badge of prestige.

Cam is now hunted by the cops with warrant of arrest after she, her son Marco Martin Cam, then acting Batuan Mayor Nelson Cambaya, and alleged gunmen Junel Gomez, Bradford Solis, Juanito De Luna, and Rigor Dela Cruz were implicated to the assassination of Yuson.

The spouses in Pangasinan had traumatic experienced with the down-to-earth Kapitan when the latter buried in a landslide votes the mayoralty aspiring wife.

A supporter explained to this writer that the political and economic equation in 2013 was far different to the present stocks of El Kapitan cum El Hizzoner.

 “He significantly transformed from a shoe-string budgeted ABC President to a big time contractor,” he cited.  

Kap is a beneficiary of hundreds of millions of pesos of government projects from congressional and provincial officials who were his allies. 

The source cited how cash strapped was the wet behind the ear mayoralty bet in the 2013 poll where a rich politician went to his succor.

“The politician had beef to grind against the spouses,  loaned her  house and lot to help shore up the Kapitan campaign chest because she could not stomach anymore how the spouses reigned the town,” the source explained to me.

“Pati mga kamag anak ko abroad nag ambag ambag para makatulong sa kampanya ko,” the Mayor now told me.

The supporter cited that even with a superior wherewithal of the hated spouses by most of the electors since one of them was the incumbent mayor, the voters still gravitated to their bet in 2013 where they voted him overwhelmingly.

“I won in a landslide in that election. I won in all the villages except one where I lost 24 votes,” the Mayor stressed to me.

The voters who milled around him in the barangays told him not to worry about the superiority of funds of the spouses since they despised the family.

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I was in San Fabian yesterday and my source told me how can mayoralty aspirants BARMM Regional Director Juvenal B. Azurin and Board Member Liberato Villegas win against the party’s juggernaut of Mayor Danny Agbayani when almost all of the villages officials of the 34 barangays have been treated with foods, dole-outs, and raffle contests’ proceeds with prices ranging up to P2000 to each of the recipient whenever the Mayor and spouse Marlyn - who is groomed to be the heir apparent of the last term hizzoner.

“Mayor Danny and Major Efren Fajardo – a village Kap - were too generous they give P500 to P2000 for each of the recipients in the raffle during the party given to the village officials,” a source told me.

The officials were the barangay chairman, the nine members of the Barangay Council (Sangguniang Barangay), Tanod, barangay health workers (BHW) have been each given the dough.

“Magkano sa Kapitan?” I asked.

“Secret. Pero sa Kagawad (Council Member) P1,000 each and the rest P500 each”.

The Mayor and Fajardo spent up to P100,000 sometimes in some of these villages for the bacchanalian feast, susmariosep, more than a year before the May 9, 2022.

“Paano iyong dalawang kalaban?”

“Si Lebi brought his dump trucks and fill-up with soils some shallow areas of the barangays. He treated too the masa with arroz caldo”.

“Hanggang lugaw lang ang kaya,” the source said about Villegas who is known as stingy according to him.

Azurin, the source said, is roving too this early the villages.

My source said that the Agbayanis have a huge financial chest complements of their moneyed patron above.

“We have now 60,000 voters but only 45,000 voted last 2019 election,” he told me to correct my 2018 Commission on Election’s data quoted on my past news article that there were 52, 334  in the first class coastal town.

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Not to be outdone on the generosity game, my source said that former Congresswoman Gina de Venecia would be meeting the former Barangay Kapitans of San Fabian so either Vice Governor Mark Lambino or spouse Lawyer Melanie Lambino – the rumored rival of her son Congressman Toff – will be deprived of the leader and influence comes the D-Day in May 2022.

The Lambinos including their patriarch Secretary and Cagayan Economic Zone Authority Administrator Raul Lambino will be dealing with the likewise politically well oiled de Venecia family that includes former five - time House Speaker Joe de Venecia.

Mayor Agbayani and the De Venecia are politically allies where they have the support of the 32 of the 34 village chiefs of the coastal town in Central Pangasinan.

My source said too that former mayor Jaming Libunao left Agbayani and joined the camp of Raul Lambino and Board Member Libe Villegas. Libunao will try to regain his post in the provincial board (Sangguniang Panlalawigan) after failing poorly to regain the mayorship in a series of bids against his godson Danny.