Tuesday, February 06, 2007 Malilong: Bad news for Cuenco By Frank Malilong Jr. The Other Side
I WAS with Raul del Mar when he first ran for congressman in the early eighties. It was a quixotic adventure: he was running as an independent and all the members of his campaign team were, like me, political neophytes. We were, as expected, thoroughly clobbered.
But the experience must have taught “Bagets” a lesson or two in political savvy. After that defeat, he rose to become a formidable force in the city’s political arena, beating back one challenge after another to his reign as Cebu City north district congressman.
This early, it looks like he will have another walk in the park when he seeks a new mandate in May. With no serious challengers in the horizon, Raul’s grip of his district appears safe for at least another three years.
Something, alas, that you cannot say about his counterpart in the south, Tony Cuenco. Tony has had more political experience than Raul, having served at one time as congressman of the old fifth district in the pre-martial law Congress. But his hold of his district has been nothing but tenuous. And it looks the same this year.
I do not know much about Jonathan Guardo, except that he is a member of the clan that has found good business in iridology. I do recall reading about his falling out with Mayor Tomas Osmeña in the aftermath of the Southeast Asian Games.
Tommy O, if I remember correctly, demanded an accounting from Guardo, who headed the Cebu organizing committee of the games, of the government funds that passed his hands. I’m sure Guardo has long done that and satisfactorily, too.
I do not know if his quarrel with the mayor had anything to do with his decision but one of the first things that Guardo did when he fell from Tommy O’s grace was to announce that he was going to run for congressman in the city’s south district. Since then he has made enough noise to attract attention to his candidacy.
Tony, as far as I know, had no hand in Tommy’s quarrel with Guardo, so it is unlikely that he chose to run in the south district to spite the congressman more than he intends to do the mayor. It could be that he resides in the south.
But since when has residence been a problem to would-be candidates? One could always change addresses and Guardo had more than enough of the one-year window to do that. Moreover, isn’t a Guardo kin the barangay captain of Sambag 1 in the south?
Could it be because he found Tony easy picking, knowing that the latter barely escaped the upset axe in the hands of Aristotle Batuhan in 2004. Or is his choice of district influenced by the belief that he can find more ammunition to be used in the campaign against Tony than he can against Raul?
I read yesterday that Guardo has challenged Cuenco to a lie detector test. That his dare earned banner headline treatment indicates that the public is taking his candidacy seriously. Bad news for Tony.
I’m sure that as the election approaches, Guardo will raise the decibel level of his noise many notches higher. How Cuenco reacts is already attracting speculation. I’m sure it will be loud and booming enough to make up for the quiet and predictability in the north district.
