Mercado: Proxy fight in Angeles

EL NIÑO is starting to ravage the countryside but it is the evil spirit of politics that is causing initial annoyance.

Certain candidates are now under an evil spell and would want their opponents to take a bite of the poison apple as Snow White did.

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Take the case of the politicians in Angeles City. The group of Edgardo Pamintuan has filed a hastily concocted plunder case against Mayor Francis Nepomuceno and his city administrator. It is perceived by residents as a timely demolition job.

The complaint definitely, like other politically-motivated suits ending in dismissal, will not prosper. As with similar others, it can cause Blueboy a momentary daze like Snow White after a witch trick.

Thereafter public opinion, as in the fabled kiss, will bring him back to new life, ultimately to his reelection.

Pamintuan and his patron, Rep. Tarzan Lazatin appeared afraid or seemed incapable of doing a frontal combat on their foes.

Tarzan, for instance has an attack dog in nuisance candidate Sibac who calls congressional bet Ares Yabut “corrupt.” Lazatin himself will not call Ares corrupt because he knows Yabut will come back swinging at him on a similar countercharge.

Pamintuan will not himself accuse Blueboy of “overpricing” because Nepomuceno will counter with its own allegations of anomalies at the NorthRail deal, the National Housing Administration resettlement program, and certain SCADC-endorsed projects.

The political fight in Angeles is a proxy war. Pamintuan is not delivering the active blows- his group does. Lazatin, likewise, is not vocal about the alleged “taga-dito, taga roon.” It takes Sibac to mouth his word war.

Both partners keep eerily quiet as their foot soldiers execute the assault. They know the saying “that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”

* * *

If politics is a game of “bathuhan” (stone throwing) two close allies of President Arroyo have long been engaged in the sport.

The ongoing quarrel between Rep. Anna York Bondoc-Sagum (4th district) and the popular Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo is an open secret. Jerry hates political dynasties, like the Puyat-Bondoc family that has effectively killed the chance of a Candaba leader from rising beyond a mayor or board member.

Candaba which is thrice larger, and richer in natural resources than Macabebe, bastion of the Bondocs, remains in the stark political swamp as long as the dynastic family is in power. The Kuyain fact has lost the last chance of being elected governor with NP leader Rimpy Bondoc dispensing Villar’s largesse.

Anna York has beaten Pelayo’s cabalen, the unyielding and determined former DOTC Asec Rene Maglanque, twice in a row for the district polls. Another son of Candaba, former general Ramsey Ocampo fell on the wayside with a defeat that has made him forget politics completely. Rene was defeated in his first try. In the second he was annihilated. Anna York is aiming for obliteration in their third fight.

What riles Kuya Jerry about Anna York, now married to the mayor of San Luis, is the congresswoman’s propensity of claiming credit for Candaba projects not under her own initiative. Anna York gets trigger-happy planting signs and billboards on projects that Pelayo had initiated in his town “The only things she cannot get credit for are the exotic migrant birds landing in the swamps,” he told Manila media.

While Jerry has earned wide acclaim for his “Ibon-Ebun” project, Anna York has also started supporting duck farmers in the district to neutralize Pelayo’s bird sanctuary project. “Sa kanya palabas lamang, sa akin pagkain ng bayan,” she retorted.

At the first onset of summer heat, Anna York put out a press release announcing the arrival of El Niño to seven towns, including Candaba.

Pelayo angrily reacted with a page 1 story denying a state of calamity in his territory. That belied the lawmaker’s veracity of the actual situation in her area.

Pelayo has been reported praying to Candaba’s patron, St. Augustine, for the town’s deliverance and for his certain victory over Andy Gulapa. Anna York has made similar supplications to her town’s patron, San Nicolas de Tolentino for protection---also for the continued political bad luck of his tormentor, known as the warrior of Mandasig.

With this battle of patron saints, Anna’s three-time competitor, former Asec Rene Maglanque has no saint to turn to for his third and last bout against the Reyna of Macabebe.

All what Rene could do is to turn to his old patron- but not a saint- Rep. Mickey Arroyo for moral support. He has El Niño Arroyo as last resort from possible final extermination.

It appeared, however, that the First Family is supporting Anna York who speaks Spanish when she is with them. They speak Pampango if her husband, Mayor Jay is within hearing distance.

Caramba! This puts Rene to a disadvantage because the civil engineer from Mandasig had not gone beyond Spanish 2 in his college days. No habla Español, amigo? Susmariaosep! If that is the case, “Patay kang bata ka!”

While Jerry’s ambition to be mayor is virtually an “Ibon,” Rene is still an “ebun” whose aspiration for Congress has to yet be hatched.

Intiende?