Hired Killer Rat His Patron

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I dropped by recently at the ritzy mansion of a first class town mayor in Northern Luzon since I did not break bread with him for a long time.

I met there too some of his seasoned political leaders that spiked up and spiced up our conversation about politics.

When I told them about the audacity of assassins murdering this year politicians like former La Union Congressman Eufranio Eriguel, Sudipen, La Union Mayor Alexander Buquing,Balaoan, La Union former mayor and incumbent Vice Mayor Alfred Concepcion, and former Bayambang, Pangasinan Councilor Levin N. Uy, the mayor told me about the aborted murder hatched against him.

He narrated that a year ago somebody called him that his perennial bitter rival, who supports a relative for the mayorship, wanted to assassinate him.

He immediately contacted his police brass’ friends at the regional command and sought their help to unmask the perpetrator of the threat.

“They have technological marvel that could trace the location of the owner of the mobile phone whenever it rings,” he enthused.

“Ya, I know that StingRay liked gadget. When my cellphone was surreptitiously taken by a theft from my opened shoulder bag in Mangaldan seven years ago, I told the incident to the then chief of police of Dagupan City where the device traced the location of my phone in Barangay Caranglaan of the city,” I cited.

Dagupan, 3rd Cong’l District have most voters in P’sinan

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Dagupan City and the Third Congressional District in Pangasinan  have the most numbers of registered voters based on the latest records of the Commission on Election (Comelec) as of November 15 this year.

It showed that the 2,956,726 populated province (National Statistics Office August 1, 2015) has 1,946, 638 voters where Dagupan City and the one city and five towns' Third Congressional District have 119,164 and 406, 035 voters, respectively.

A normal scene in every election: The inconveniences that meet a voter who has to wade the multitude to search for his name and his designated voting booth at a bulletin board provided by the Commission on Election in the voting precinct. 

The district is composed, based from the highest number of voters, of San Carlos City, Malasiqui, Bayambang, Calasiao,  Santa Barbara, and Mapandan.

 The 15 highest vote rich Local Government Units in Pangasinan and their corresponding number of voters are:

1.    Dagupan City :       119, 164

2.    San Carlos City:     111, 170

3.    Urdaneta City:         87, 916

4.    Malasiqui:                81, 342

5.    Bayambang:            75, 911

6.    Lingayen:                66, 286

7.    Mangaldan:              65, 115

8.    Calasiao:                 61, 653

9.    Binmaley:                60, 870

10.  Alaminos City:          56, 863

11.  San Fabian:              52, 334

12.  Santa Barbara:         51, 863

13.  Umingan:                 51, 310

14.  Mangatarem:            51, 150

15.  Pozorrubio:               47, 659

According to an officer of the Comelec, who asked for anonymity, the 1.947 million voters could be reduced by hundreds only because of the deletion on the multiple registrations, validation, change of residence, and others by the Electoral Regulation Board (ERB).

The congressional districts with the highest number of voters are:

The Day I Met the Queen

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The first time I heard the song of the British rock band Queen was in Paco, Manila in 1980. I was in second year high school  spending my vacation in the jungle asphalt of the Metropolis with my air force’s father who was in his furlough.

“Turorum-tum-tom turo-ro-rum tutom! “Turorum-tum-tom turo-ro-rum tutom!” low riffed by the four strings bass guitar of John Deacon, the composer, who would start the song while the hard beat of the sticks to the drums of Roger Taylor accompanied the “Turorum-tum-tom turo-ro-rum tutom!” that made them stimulate my mind.

"Ansarap naman niyang beat ng Another One Bites The Dust," I quipped to myself.

Then lead singer Freddie Mercury deep throaty flirty-growl and high-pitched voice opened the vocal with:

Steve walks warily down the street

With the brim pulled way down low

Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet

Machine guns ready to go

Are you ready? Hey, are you ready for this?

Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Of course I did not know yet the names of the lead singer, lead guitarist Brian May, bass guitarist, and the drummer of the rock band created in London in 1970.

The song caught me with its funk rock beat of the bass guitar, drum, and its boogie styled melody.

Gen. Bato Answers My Queries on Murders, ICC against Him

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The reason why former four-star general and national police chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa earned a niche in the heart and mind of Filipino voters was not only his derring-do to belt a song or songs while lady spectators pulled their male counterparts to dance with the music he averagely sang but his provincial demeanour spiced up by his Cebuano or Mindanaon thick accented Tagalog.

These are his comparative advantage to other senatorial rivals like Bam Aquino, JV Ejercito, and others who were outside the Magic 12 of the 2019 Senate Race’s surveys.

I’ve been telling media colleagues here in Luzon why Tagalog ladies loved their Visayan or Mindanoan boyfriends or husbands not because of their sexual prowess but because of the thickness of their tongue in enunciating a correct sounding American word. 

ITAGA MO SA BATO - Pollster’s Social Weather Station No. 10 senatorial wannabe retired police general Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa was smiling when I told him in "Bisaya" names of his relatives in Barangay Bato, Sta. Cruz , Davao del Sur, my town mate Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, and his "Good Boy" PMA, classmate in Mindanao.

Peace for them is “Pis”.
  As a resident of Mindanao in the middle of 1970s to middle of 1980s, the ballyhooed “Pis” word for them had, son of a gun, multiple meanings.
Pis could be “Face”, “Peace”, “Paste”, "Piss", or “Fish”.

Duterte cannot sign 3rd Telco thru FINL – Senator Poe

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY - Senator Grace Poe said that Duterte could not just sign an executive order through the Foreign Investment Negative List (FINL) allowing a third player in the telecommunication industry controlled by Philippines Long Distance Telephone/Smart and Globe Telecom.
“Ganito ‘yan, kasi sa batas natin may nagsasabi ‘pag ang telco, hindi puwedeng foreign owned ‘yan; so kailangan maipasa sa Senado, so ‘yun ‘yung aming itutulak. Ngayon, maganda ‘yung ibang mga korporasyon o industriya ay magkaroon ng kumpetensiya. So kung may foreign owners na magbibigay ng mas magandang serbisyo, bakit hindi ‘di ba? Pero nasa batas na kailangan muna naming ma-amyendahan,” she stressed to this paper when she visited this city recently.

Senator Grace Poe

The duopoly of these corporations punished the Filipinos for their poor services especially the internet connection considered one of the slowest and probably expensive in Far East Asia.

Politicians Wish Illegal Number Game Jueteng Around

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Vice mayors in Pangasinan these days are anxious as the middle term election will be next year because they are financially handicapped to the rush of solicitors who will exploit their candidacy, a vice mayor of a Central Pangasinan town lamented.

“The filing will be on October 11-12 to 15-17 this month and election will be on May 13, 2019. Can you imagine the waves of indigents, public employees like teachers, folks in the barangays who need monies for their medical problems, Christmas programs, fiestas and basketball uniforms,” he told this writer.Photo Credit: Inquirer

Actions, Counter Actions Among Electoral Rivals

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The defection and repositioning of the supporters of the two camps of the gubernatorial wannabes in this province exhilarated the spectators as the last day of the filing of the certificate of candidacy (CoC) will end on October 17, 2019.

The defection of Board Member Raul Sison, a staunch ally of Governor Amado Espino, III and his father to the camp of Alaminos City Mayor and governorship candidate Arthur Celeste surprised many Pangasinenses.

The fall out, triggered the Espinos to allegedly commission retired police general Fidel Posadas, former provincial director in Quezon Province and former PRO - 1 Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Chief, to challenge the son of Sison, Urbiztondo Mayor Martin Sison, for the mayoralty of the Second Congressional District's town.

After Bolinao Mayor Arnold Celeste filed his Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) last Thursday at the Commission on Election - Provincial Office in Dagupan City for the First Congressional District to be left by his older brother Congressman Jesus, it will prompt the candidacy of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority General Manager Tim Orbos to challenge the younger Celeste in the one city nine towns' Western Pangasinan district.

 

But an insider at the camp of Orbos told me that he was evaluating too, a few days before the end of the filing of the CoC, on his stocks in case he runs for the vice governorship.

Governor Espino and his father were seen hobnobbing recently with former leaders of the first district at the residence of former Alaminos City Vice Mayor Jing Aquino.

In an October 7 photo tagged at my Facebook account by Pangasinan “quintessential” photo journalist Mon Untalan, these personalities were former Mabini Mayor Ariel de Guzman, Orbos, the younger brother of the district’s former representative Oscar Orbos, and others.

The action of Alaminos City Mayor Celeste to pull out his son League of Barangays –Pangasinan Chapter President and ex oficio member of the Sanggunian Panlalawigan (provincial board) to succeed him in the city precipitated the Espinos to egg former board member Boying Humilde to run for the mayoralty to frustrate the young Celeste’s foray in the post.

With this new positioning, do pundits see exiting congressman Jesus Celeste foregoes his plan to hibernate but instead wear again his political armor to counter the plan of the Espino in Alaminos?

“No,” declared by Bolinao Mayor Noli Celeste when I asked him.

He told me that BM Brian is still the forerunner for the mayorship of the coastal city.

Congressman Celeste divulged me before he had a moist eye in the steering wheel of Alaminos because his brother Art will run for the congressional office in the May 2019 poll.

Graduating Binalonan Mayor Ramon “Monmon” Guico, III told recently this paper that in case the forecasts of the camps of Agbayani and Celeste were true that Congressman Amado T. Espino, Jr. would abandon the Fifth District and run as governor while his son and namesake, the present governor, slides as his vice governorship tandem, he will see himself being pitted to exiting Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo "Bobom" Gregorio Perez IV.

He said the older Espino will surely enlist Perez, a new ally, to frustrate him and as a front against Celeste in the one city eight towns’ eastern Pangasinan’s district.

But political personalities at the Comelec told me this repositioning in the Fifth Congressional District will not happen because Espino will pursue his reelection as his governor son will either choose between Bautista Mayor Deo Espino or Orbos for the vice governorship.

The defection of BM Raul Sison to the Celestes would have a major price on the part of the Espinos.

Sison and Art Celeste will dichotomize the votes of the eight towns’ 2nd Congressional District that political kibitzers seen before as bailiwick of congressional wannabe Bugallon Mayor Jumel Espino, his congressman - father and governor- brother.

During the heydays there of then Second District Representative Amado T. Espino, Jr who later became a nine-year governor, the district was his vote churning citadel what with his collaboration with the brothers Bugallon Mayor Ric Orduna and his Man Friday and “non nonpareil” operator retired Colonel Paterno Orduna and Sison.

Presently the trio is his political enemies.

Sison, his wife Urbiztondo Vice Mayor Marlyn Sanglay- Sison deserted several days ago PDP-Laban, the party of the Espinos, and joined the Nationalista Party of Senator Cynthia Villar.

It is suspected that the one who interceded for their transfer to the Nationalista was Abono Party List Represenatative Conrado Estrella, a political nemesis of the Espinos, who was grinning ear to ear as he brought Sison, his wife,Umingan Mayor Michael Cruz, and Aguilar Vice Mayor Roldan Sagleto to the senator whose husband former Senate President Manny Villar is the party’s chairman.

“Does the rumored mayoralty candidacy of police retired general Posadas versus your son Urbiztondo Mayor Martin trigger as punishment by the powers that be for your defection?” I asked, of course in Tagalog, Board Member Sison after he filed his congressional intention at the Comelec's provincial office in Dagupan City last Thursday morning.

“Hindi ko alam kung iyan po..ang lahat naman po ng position may kalaban, e lalagyan po ng kalaban ang aking anak. Talagang ganoon ho kasi election, demokrasya”.

When the Celestes put almost half a million of pesos fifteen 30 seconds spots’ public relation advertisement at GMA-7 regional television that ended a day before the start of the October 11 filing of CoC, the camp of Espino ran too in a tit-for-tat mode on that expensive television PR ingratiation game.

As both camps trudge the May 13, 2019 day reckoning, expect more pricey radio and TV slots to be bought by these candidates and their supporters where some have already been freaking out like faggots in the social media.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)