RECLAMATION developer Sammy Palanca is apparently not cut of the same cloth. Businessmen, particularly the Chinese, normally do not go all out for any candidate. They are not risk takers, preferring to play safe by betting on all the horses.
Palanca did the same in the past. That is why no past and present elected officials of Bacolod can say in all honesty that they have never been beneficiaries of Palanca’s largesse. Well, maybe not all as I was told Wilson Gamboa Jr. was gifted with a fat envelope when the Bredco take-over ordinance was being deliberated but which he reportedly returned to sender. Leonardia himself, if we can believe former mayor Oscar Verdeflor, received of an P18-million campaign fund from Palanca in 1998.
If it is true that Jun Gamboa returned to sender the cold cash sent to him, then he is indeed a rare bird.
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After thinking it over, I can now see the point in Mono’s fear of Moca. It is this point that must be giving Novero and Valdez nightmares.
While it is true that Moca is primarily focused on unorganized pro-Cano and pro-Monico voters, there is the danger that it might spread like a contagion and engulf those already organized by Mono. In fact, I have sensed this tendency lately. As we already said, majority of those in Mono are Monico voters who are forced to swallow Novero like a bitter pill. They are afraid to leave Mono as they have nowhere to turn to.
They cannot even ask their neighbors and relatives to vote for Monico and Cano Tan, their chosen candidates, for fear that Monico might not take responsibility over them and Mono will swallow all the campaign funds without even an empty bag for them.
With Moca, they can now give free rein to their heart’s desire. And it will be like a flood, as they will desert Mono by the legions and hitch their wagons with Moca. In short Moca will open the floodgates.
It is these massive migrations from Mono to Moca that Novero and Valdez are afraid of as it will leave them nothing but crumbs.
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It is said that a few Mono strategists consider Novero’s chances now brighter that when he lost to Monico by a mere 1,500 votes in 2007.
What they fail or refuse to see is that Bing Leonardia concentrated his campaign more on Novero as he was sure that Valdez was already a spent force. In fact he was right. He massacred Joy Valdez, leading by more than 50,000 votes, a phenomenon that has never happened in Bacolod before.
Why did Bing concentrate on Novero? Because he wanted Monico to lose so that the latter will also be a spent force by 2010. Bing’s misfortune is that for all his efforts for Novero, Monico still won, although by a narrow margin.
So to conclude now that Novero can still bank on the 67,000 votes he got in 2007 is plain, foolish thinking. Where did Novero’s vote in 2007 come from? I will even concede that Novero on his own can generate 10,000 votes from his ministry, from Sammy Palanca, and from those who do not know him. The rest came from the powerful Leonardia machine which moved heaven and earth to defeat Monico.
Yet, inspite of Leonardia’s efforts, there was still a yawning gap between his votes and Novero’s.
Why is this so?
Because even if Leonardia did everything humanly possible to carry Novero, thousands of his supporters did not obey him as they cannot bring themselves to vote for Novero. They either voted for Monico or left the space for congressman blank.
So, how will Novero fare now? Granting that he retains his church vote, including those who do not know him, and if Palanca opens his faucet all the way, these will comprise 30 percentof Novero’s votes. The 70 percent he has to get from Monico, if there is NO Moca.
But Novero is better off than Valdez. If Novero-and-Monico-loses, he can always go back to his ministry.
How about Valdez? She has nowhere to go except go back to her home province in Mindanao.