By Joe Espiritu
Sunday Post
So the Third Political District of
Bohol political pot is starting to boil. It had been an accepted fact that the older Jala is going to replace the son. The Jalas are doing what they can to keep the congressional office within the family. Previously, the bother of Jala senior was supposed to run for his vacated post thinking that the Third District voters do not know his son from Adam – no pun intended.
However, the brother might not relinquish the post if he wins because once one is bitten by the political bug, there is no antidote. So what happened was the son campaigning with the company of his father. The irony will be;
if the son will run against his father. Filial piety can go hang once infected by the political disease. An old saying states that politics knows no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests, self interest that is. We might add to the first phrase, no relatives – hey man, relatives are permanent so they say but you can disown the.
If the father against son contest might materialize, Rene Relampagos might try his luck again. Or it might be Dionisio Balite or any member of the Balite clan. Or then, if Fortunato Abrenilla finds Jagna too small a pond for him and the administration party will declare the Third District as a zona libre, he would also make a try. Market place rumors say that he is fielding his brother Theodore for the Jagna mayoralty post.. That might be a ploy of the Abrenilla opponents but it might also be true. There might yet be others.
The biggest name pushed for the Third District congressional post is Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap. Except for being a cabinet member, we do not know anything about him, locally that is, only this month and that information is his wife is from Loboc. His credentials is not a thing, which any voter can fail to notice. His clout is bigger than Bicbic Abrenilla’s though both are members of the administrative family, Bicbic occupies a lesser position being an Administrative Assistant IV of the NEDA.
National exposure is a good political hay for any candidate, the question is how to translate that exposure into local votes. History has shown that a national position holds a kiss of death for any local politician. Esteban Bernido, a war hero , in law of the politically powerful Caseñas family of Jagna, several times Governor, several times Congressman. To clear the Bohol political field, he was given a job as a Housing Czar by Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. He had not intention of coming back to the Bohol political field after that.
Then there was Danny Gaviola of Ubay when Ubay was once in the Third District. If we still remember it right, he was an Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals. He tried for the congressional seat and did not make it. Then there was Juan C. Pajo, several times governor, Executive Secretary of Pres Carlos P Garcia oftentimes termed as the little President. He too ran and lost.
It could be that Sec Arthur Yap might break the jinx. However, he will have to campaign actively in a manner which would circumvent not violate election laws. And he will have to resign his post when the files his candidacy. Since a political contest is unpredictable, anything can happen. He will have to take whatever risk encountered. Anyway, at the end of the PGMA government, he will have to leave his post unless retained by the successor. But that will be more remote than a Bohol Third District congressional post.
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=17512.0
