By
Mortz C. Ortigoza
With
roughly 3,000 lead votes by Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez against
mayoral rival and Vice Mayor Brian Lim in the recent scientific poll, the
former and her supporters should guard themselves on the surprises the latter
can pull as the May 13, 2019 election approaches.
Then
re-elective Bonuan Gueset Barangay Chairman Angel Gumarang lost to challenger
and come backing kapitan candidate Rico Mejia when then Dagupan City Mayor
Benjie S. Lim struck out a drama that saw the reelective village chief, with
all the resources of the huge village at his disposal, lost to Mejia.
Gumarang
told us media men then that he could not do his hustings effectively to the
various sitios of the biggest village in the city, mind you guys its population
bigger than those fourth class towns, because the police through the order of
Lim watched him and his men closely.
He even suspected that his driver was bribed by the other camp to incriminate him and change the momentum of his campaign strategies.
“Kap,
pagasulinahan natin ito mamaya. Problema pa natin iyan baka maubusan tayo ng
gasolina pag umikot tayo,” the driver told him in the eve of the October 25,
2010 barangay election.
He
said another two of his unwitting aides accompanied the driver.
Firearms "Planted" by the Police
After the clock hit midnight, the car was cruising to the gasoline station in the village but was immediately flagged down by policemen manning a newly installed check point.
The
trio was ordered to disembark and frisk by the cops while their vehicle was
searched and was found out to have automatic assault rifles without license.
At
2 o’clock in the following early morning he and his lawyer were at the police
station arguing with the chief of police that the guns were “planted” where the
police could not even produce, son of a gun, the weapons.
But
it was not the concern of the police and probably the mayor and his rival. What
was in their mind was the hype and brouhaha the apprehension of his men and the
seizure of the imagined guns could be a sensational news in that day’s prime
time television and radio stations.
What
aggravated the destruction of his integrity and the plunged of his popularity
before the voters go to the polls was the series of pronouncements of the
Election Officer of the Commission on Election to the media that he was already
damaged and would be subjected to criminal charges and jail time even if he
wins the election.
“Masakit.
Ang Election Officer interviewed at the behest of the mayor. He said mabigat
itong kaso ni Kapitan Gumarang kahit na manalo siya, paulit ulit pang sinabi
iyon, hindi rin siya makakatapos dahil pa file din siya ng kaso,” he
recalled.
He
lost 500 votes among the 8,000 voters of the village to the come backing
kapitan, thanks to the astute interference of the mayor.
He
cited to us the reason of the determined intervention of the mayor: Lim smarted
when he shifted his loyalty from him to Al Fernandez when the latter regained
his mayoral post in 2007.
Lim
was mayor of Dagupan in 2001 to 2007 and 2010 to 2013 after beating Fernandez
in the 2010 election where voters saw his chutzpah how to defeat the seasoned
politico Fernandez who had 12 years experienced as hizzoner (psst, it
means HisHonortheMayor).
2010
Election: Benjie versus Al
When
Lim challenged re-elective Mayor Al Fernandez in 2010 poll. I joined many of
the stumps of the latter and his allies like congressional candidate Gina de
Venecia, and Fernandez’s ticket lead by then vice mayoral bet Belen T.
Fernandez, a powerful trader like Lim, and slate for the legislature.
I
saw the miniscule crowd that attended the rally of Lim unlike the huge
spectators that attended the stumps of Fernandez.
This
was due probably to the intercession of the mayor for his kapitans who brought
a huge number of people not to mention the supporters of the De Venecias and
the bets for the city councilors whose surnames were identified with the old
influential families in the city.
I
though Al could handily defeat Benjie until the Murphy's Law came.
Until
eight days before the May 10, 2010 Election, the wife of City Administrator
Alvin Fernandez, the son of the candidate, and her supporters who were mostly
women crossed path with the throng of Lim’s son Brian, his body guards, and
supporters during their house-to-house visitation in Barangay Bolosan.
“Nang isang sasakyan ang
namataang mabilis na nakasunod sa grupo at bigla na lamang siyang makarinig ng
sigaw na “I-secure si Mam” kasunod pa ang pahayag na “takbo Mam, takbo Mam!” at
nang lumingon siya mula sa likod ay may nakitang mga kalalakihang may bitbit na
baril.
Sa
takot para sa kanilang buhay at pagkataranta ay agad na tumakbo at nagtago si
Ginang Fernandez kasama ang ilang kagawad at tanod ng lugar sa isang bahay
roon,”an
excerpt of a news in our newspaper Northern Watch.
Katherine,
wife of Alvin, frantically called him through her mobile phone about Lim and
his alleged armed company who chased them.
An
angry Alvin Ferdnandez called the police where together they jumped off to the
village and confronted Lim and his group. Through the threat of their firearms,
as based on the narration of witnesses, ordered Lim and company to lie in a
prone position.
Lim
and company reported the threat, coercion, and manhandling to the police on
that day. The group of Fernandez complained also on the same date about Lim’s
false accusation and instead reported to the police of their harassment to
Katherine and company.
Both
camps filled criminal cases with each other at the prosecutor’s office.
In
that May 2 incident, a livid Benjie Lim rushed to the office of then Chief of
Police Lt. Colonel Sonny Verzosa about the assault by the Fernandez group to
his son who was hit from the barrel of an Armalite rifle allegedly swung by
Fernandez’s body guard Ador Malapit.
Later television footage from the two
regional TV networks based in the city showed Brian displayed to all and sundry
the hematoma inflicted by the barrel. The people in and out of the city were
shocked and scandalized by the brutality of the Fernandez group.
Alpatuan
Fernandez and Ampatuans of Maguindanao
“Alpatuan
in Dagupan,” Mayor Lim and supporters cried, during their acrimonious
march and intense rally complete with placards at the city plaza to compare Al
Fernandez to the dreaded Ampatuan Clan of Maguindanao who just massacred 53
persons that included 34 reporters where they hurriedly buried through the use
of a backhoe to cover the corpus delicti that would incriminate them for life
sentences.
The
mob of Lim also asked for the relief of Lt. Colonel Verzosa. Verzosa’s PMA
classmate Police Provincial Director Colonel Percival Barba promptly relieved
11 SWAT men and policemen because of that hullabaloo after his initial
investigation showed they did not lift a finger when Fernandez and company
harassed the Lim’s group.
Until
today, many people in Dagupan considered the marks on the body of the teary
eyed Brian as shown at the boob tubes as for show to win the sympathy of the
voters that should be voting for Al Fernandez.
“Those
were not hematoma those were ventosa,” similar quips by some people like
Regional Examiner Editor Edwin Tandoc I heard and read at social media
Facebook.
Ventosa
or cupping therapy is an ancient form of alternative medicine in which a
therapist puts special cups on one’s skin for a few minutes to create
suction.
But
it was too late for De Venecia’s P.R woman Gypsy Baldovino to damage control
the drama thrown like a bakis, er, monkey wrench by the Lims at the
midst that flustered Al Fernandez and his son Alvin as they braced for the home
stretch for the moment of reckoning of the Who’s Who in the mayorship of
Dagupan City.
To
cut the chase, Lim battered Al
with 37,601 versus 34,443 votes or a
lead votes of 3,158, Belen T. Fernandez became a vice mayor by thrashing out
Danilo “Pakoy” Torio with 46,755 votes against his 12,890
votes, Ador was murdered by balaclava wearing gun men who ambushed him inside
his vehicle with a military precision at Barangay San Miguel, Calasiao, Alvin
Fernandez, a congressional bet now, reportedly hid in Tarlac to avoid the wrath
of the Lims, Benjie Lim suffered a stroke at the eve of the 2013 mayorship poll
versus Belen Fernandez who defeated him with more than 3000 votes, Lim died
early this year, and Alvin and his brother Alfie did not only become allies of
Brian Lim but Alfie became the vice mayoral bet of the former.
Salamabit,
these were the roller coaster rides, the irony, the hilarity, and the
skulduggery of Dagupan City’s politics and Mayor Belen should watch the lurking
stunts that will be pulled up by Brian if the latter mulls to emulate the
shrewdness of his father.
(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)
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