Thursday, April 26, 2007 Ledesma: Horse trading By Jun Ledesma
THEY call it political horse trading. A classic example of this is when Sen. Ed Angara announced that he is for Ben de Guzman in the 3rd congressional district in Davao City and realizing later what the impact of his statement could be on his own senatorial bid quickly retracted and endorsed instead Hugpong's bet Sid Ungab.
Senator Angara must have realized soon enough that he made a big blunder upon knowing that Ungab is not just a candidate running, but he is in fact the personal choice of Mayor Duterte to pit against the more veritable opponent Rene Lopez. Thus, Angara lost no time and scooted to the residence of the Mayor and apologized for his "error."
My mole in the Duterte tent told me that the mayor instead referred Angara to Sid, who too was in the mayor's residence. Sid was just to glad to meet his mentor in the University of the Philippines. It turned out that Angara was president of UP when Sid was studying there. The drama was that Sid told Angara that he felt disturbed when the senator earlier endorsed Ben de Guzman when all the time he and Hugpong, by the directive of Mayor Duterte, were campaigning for the senatorial slate of Team Unity.
Angara of course knew where his bread is (well) buttered and realizing that indeed he placed Hugpong, Duterte and Ungab in an awkward position he lost no time and sought the mayor to atone for his mistake. He proceeded with his redemption and went ahead proclaiming Sid as his true an only choice for congressman.
Sid is smiling from ear to ear of course while Ben is now left with his own resources and ...reverie.
More than the vagaries of real politik, I think that Angara in fact made a correct decision for his atonement. Ben knew that Angara, the flag bearer of LDP, has joined Team Unity. It would be a stab in the back if Angara supports a local candidate that is a dye-in-the-wool an opposition in the person of BCG. My guess is that Ben must have kept his true political color from Angara. But that cannot last a second. Therefore we saw the 180-degree turn of the senator when he woke up to the fact that he is conniving with an enemy. Duterte will not like that and if the mayor thinks Angara does not need him and Hugpong, the senator can actually go plant kamote with BCG.
But all is well that ends well. I think that the trio had sealed a covenant because Sid is seemingly happy these days in the campaign trail while Ben tells us that he still is in Angara's heart. I don't know though, whether that can be translated to votes.
By the way, I have been receiving emails from curious readers abroad how things are going in Davao del Norte's political landscape. I tell you there is more than just politics in Davao province. Watch this corner.
