Shielding Abe

A CASE of the patrician Aguinaldo stealing the Katipunan from the plebeian Bonifacio. Albeit on a minuscule scale and sans the collateral bloodbath.

That ignobility on high, descended to the ludicrous low of the proverbial guest welcomed into a home only to lord over the hearth and ultimately evicting the homeowner.

Precisely what happened in Partido Abe Kapampangan.

It can’t get any more literal than once AbeKa guest candidate for vice mayor Bryan Matthew C. Nepomuceno, scion of wealth and political power, now poised to be party standard bearer in the Angeles City mayoralty race next year.

AbeKa co-founder and president Alexander S. Cauguiran, of workingmen stock, though not necessarily kicked out but nonetheless left clutching at straws.

And Cauguiran knows only too well how to make the best out of this worst situation. In the Bonifacio analogy of the walis tingting, by binding the straws into a broom with which to sweep his candidacy to greater feasibility, and ultimately to victory. Hence, the old AbeKa faithful keeping to the Cauguiran fold, more determined than ever to make him win.  

Then comes the windfall for which Cauguiran did not even have to cry Nanay!           

The ruling political monolith that is Kambilan (Kapanalig at Kambilan ding Memalen Pampanga), founded by Gov. Lilia G. Pineda readily taking Cauguiran under its benevolent wings.     

Aptly screamed the headline Gov ‘Nanay’ opens door to ‘rejected’ Cauguiran.

"(Angeles) city hall shut the door but the provincial Capitol opened it wide for me,” said he. "Thank you, Governor Nanay (Pineda) for seeing our strong managerial leadership, sincerity and ability to mobilize tens of thousands of supporters to realize our advocacies.”

As profuse an expression of gratitude to the governor was Cauguiran’s pained lamentation of his rejection by his long-time comrade in the party.    

Blinded

Read between the lines, and damn: What the Capitol readily recognizes, aye, openly sees in Cauguiran, city hall is wittingly blinded to. 

The play of emotions attendant to this is the least flattering to Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan.

No mere urban legend but public lore is Cauguiran tried and tested loyalty, and efficacy to Pamintuan as he braintrusted and backstopped Pamintuan’s triumphs in the city mayoralty contests in 1992 and 1995, in his 2010 comeback on to 2016. In the intervening Malacanang years of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as well.

For Pamintuan to now “reject” Cauguiran and take Nepomuceno as his chosen one unravels once and for all the falsity of the mayor – in stark contrast to the trueness of Cauguiran – to their storied comradeship forged in the people’s aspiration for true liberation, tested in the crucible of the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.

Still, "we will also support Pamintuan, in spite of everything, as partylist candidate in the same elections," declared Cauguiran, in an affirmation of his loyalty to the man, consequently magnifying his betrayal by him.   

Expect to currency anew the queso de bola derision the kasama of the old order spits at “altered” activists. As much for the color – revolutionary red on the outside, craven yellow inside, as for their proclivity in beguiling the masa with their…what else, pambobola. Cheesy as they can get, and stinking too.      

Loss, gain

In rejecting Cauguiran, Partido Abe Kapampangan lost the moral ground upon which it is founded – as mass-based party of the ordinary folk seeking to end the stranglehold of local politics by the elite.

By taking in the rejected Cauguiran, Kambilan reaffirmed its very meaning – shield, sanctuary as well, in Kapampangan.

Indeed, Kambilan ding Abe Kapampangan.     

To Cauguiran, Kambilan's nomination “disproves the 'sure to lose' remark labelled against him by opponents.”

On the other hand, Kambilan is by no means a sure ticket to winning at the polls.

No less than Governor Pineda has said that in her engagement in electoral politics for over 30 years now, no political party has served as determining factor to victory as much as the individual – with capabilities, rapport with the public, and performance as premium.

Above all, it’s destiny, the governor said. So, it is – with her. As that truism holds: Character is destiny.

As for Cauguiran, take comfort in Psalm 118:22 -- The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

And then seize the old Tagalog maxim: Ibinigay na sa iyo ang santo, bahala ka na sa milagro.