Wednesday, August 15, 2007 Mercado: Exorcism at PB? By Ram Mercado First Person
IF GOVERNOR Eddie Panlilio thinks he is carrying a heavy cross at the Capitol, his road to Calvary is a walk in the park compared to the ordeal suffered by the Angeles City Council on Mayor Francis "Blueboy" Nepomuceno.
To partially immobilize the city mayor and his city administrator, the two top officials had been deprived of official vehicles for their official functions.
The vehicles for official use of their offices had been hurriedly turned over to the City Council before their assumption in office.
It was a premeditated and well-executed move by the outgoing Lazatin administration to make life difficult for the incoming mayor. Instead of returning the vehicles to their rightful holders, the City Council now cites budgetary constraints in providing for the vehicles' replacement, thus adding insult to injury.
In the matter of Gov. Eddie's first station of the cross, he is being refused the right and privilege to appoint his choice personnel in the governor's office.
The Provincial Board (PB), orchestrated by the famous basketball coach, refused to confirm the appointment of Provincial Administrator Vivian Dabu and Provincial Legal Officer Eliza Velez for flimsy and trivial reasons.
There are more than nine ways to kill a cat, and the honorable board members can find a score more to prevent the Gov from doing a good performance. By obstruction in the guise of mere opposition.
Pampangos, here and abroad, find it amusing how and why their new governor and new Angeles City mayor are being victimized in the manner they are presently subjected, short of being tortured under cruel and unusual punishment.
When I was a school grader, I remember certain residents of our barangay who suffered from mysterious diseases and unexplained afflictions. I heard some folks testifying on their ancestors' grave that they saw lizards and black worms being vomited by the victims after successful treatment by a faith (or fake) healer.
During drinking sessions at a local store, the old folks told of how some mangkukulam played tricks on people they dislike or who incurred their ire by pricking a ragtag doll with heavy pins to inflict damage on the person(s) to be tortured.
Today, there are no more talks of that kind. But there is an invisible and powerful spirit that influences, guides, or manipulates some individual actuations, the effect which if collectively done, can inflict pain on the victim(s).
I am wondering why intelligent and decent people like the PB members can be mesmerized, as if by an unseen spirit, and act as one, with no single independent and sensible mind, deviating from an apparent conspiracy to deny the new governor his persons of choice to help him run the Capitol. Are they under a spell?
A perceived slight to their mighty egos or imagined disrespect by Miss Dabu and Miss Velez is not a plausible reason enough or a ground to subject their confirmation to a grueling process.
Vice Governor Yeng Guiao, usually a respectful and extraordinary gentleman, did not have to make a political grandstand of a communication faux pas by the Governor's Office in the matter of requesting a blanket authority on donations.
He could have met the Gov and pointed out his corrections in sobriety and circumspect, but had to blow hard on his horn.
It appears that Guiao, running mate of the Million Dollar Baby, and the PB members are marching to the drumbeat of obstructionists rather than opposition politics. By its actuations, the PB is singing a single anthem, moved by one mindset, and inspired by a singular motive. I leave the reader what the motive could be.
I understand there is a pending action for Comelec intervention to put Mrs. Lilia Pineda to a recounted victory over the priest-politician. This would be a disaster area that would propel President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to sink deeper in the quagmire. She would not let this happen or this would be an added issue to the "Hello Garci" tape scandal, to Lintang Bedol, to unresolved graft allegations on the expensive automation machines purchased by Comelec.
The irony is Mrs. Pineda is grossly disadvantaged by being the President's cumadre and town mate.
Is the prospect of Ms. Pineda becoming governor the spirit that hypnotizes PB members and Guiao, especially to act as they do and try to enforce their will on the lowly priest?
