DUSIT THANI MACTAN CEBU RESORT: A peek of Eden-by-the-sea

A hidden Eden -- by its very location at the northern tip of the Punta Engaño Peninsula jutting into Magellan Bay – Dusit Thani Mactan Cebu is – as advertised – “an inviting retreat.” Indeed, a serene sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of…Metro Cebu or any other urban center one may seek to escape from. 

Thai, by nominal association and by its signature restaurant Benjarong, the resort is imbued with the warmth of Filipino hospitality. And yes, it offers dining options – Tradewinds Café for all-day dining and buffet on weekends (the seafood fare is to die for!); The View lobby lounge, wide open to refreshing sea breezes; The Deli, of coffee, cakes and pastries, and indulgences all sweet; and The Sunset Bar, for the spirituous and the sporty alike.

In true Thai tradition, wellness is not just a ritual but a celebration at the resort’s Namm Spa. There is a Fitness Centre – a fully equipped gym with the latest machines and facilities. And a Fun Zone for kids.   

Most captivating feature of the resort – at the very first sighting – is its infinity pool stretching some 100 meters parallel to the beach with a vast sundeck fringed with coconut palms swaying, sashaying to the breeze.

Alas, the resort fully booked for the day, no room tour for the media visitor. Given but a sneak peek, photographs and memories of this Eden-by-the-sea will have to do for now. 

(Dusit Thani Mactan Cebu Resort is one-hour flight from the Clark International Airport via Cebu Pacific Air)

 

NUSTAR RESORT AND CASINO: Stellar Hotelcation

CEBU CITY – No single nova but a galaxy all its own in the dazzling firmament of travel, tour, entertainment, gaming, and not the least gastronomy.

That is Nustar Resort and Casino, the premier 5-star integrated resort of the city and its eponymous province, in all of the Visayas and Mindanao, and one of the select fewer-than-few in the whole Philippines. 

Nustar is luxury defined right at its very portals of glass, granite and marble; magnificent crystal chandeliers hanging from its high ceilings, an expansive lobby so predominantly golden that Midas could have crafted it himself, and here and there, fine objets d’art and paintings.

Global brands – from haute couture to luxe jewelry and all shibboleths of wealth – level up shopping in style at The Mall.

 

The Casino: Vegas’ tackiness absent in its vastness – 250 tables, 1,500 machines on 21,000 square meters – and still stylishly elegant though sans the old world charm of Monte Carlo.    

Premier Cinemas, reputed to be Cebu’s most luxurious and state-of-the-art with 3D technology and a cutting-edge laser projection system for the total movie experience.

Food, glorious food! Filipino, Asian, American, European all under one roof but with a diversity of ambiance peculiar to that of the provenance.  

Fili Café, a buffet of international and regional Filipino cuisines.

Fina, classic and heirloom dishes from Cebu primarily, as well as other culinary centers of the country. 

Café Laguna, authentic Filipino favorites like kare-kare, puto bumbong, and

lumpia. 

Xin Tian Di, heavenly southern Chinese and southeast Asian culinary delights most fitting for the English translation of its name, “New Heaven and Earth.”

Mott 32, in tribute to the famous convenience store on 32 Mott Street in New York City, serving a modern take on Chinese cuisine.

Kazuwa Prime, umami!

Kozima by Nonki, oishi!

Barcino, dedicated to Spanish gastronomy complemented by an extensive wine list.

Il Primo, Cebu’s very first Italian steakhouse. Squisito! Che buono!

Axis, entertainment and sports bar for live entertainment and nightly shows with the city’s best-curated wines, spirits, and cocktails.

Abaca Baking Company, for the finest all-butter croissants, pastries and baked goods in all of Metro Cebu.

Fili Lobby Lounge, for coffee goodness, sweet desserts, fresh sandwiches.

Who’d seek for more?

Aye, Nustar Resort and Casino is a complete destination of delight in itself.

 

Fili Hotel

An ambiance of opulence and sophistication permeating Fili – from its tastefully-appointed rooms, ocean vistas, sundecks and pools to fine dining and the impressive standard of service of its staff – indeed befits its being the very first Filipino 5-Star luxury hotel brand.

Filipino hospitality not only on display but lived up to the full, for the grandest stay. Hotelcation finding its very meaning there.   

As one good thing deserves another, soon to open is Nustar Hotel, with the promise to even redefine ultra-luxury.

Now, that’s one promise to experience. 

(Nustar Resort and Casino is but an hour hop from the Clark International Airport via Cebu Pacific, daily) 

Ika-45 guning taon ng Central Luzon Media Association

 

Only last September, the Central Luzon Media Association – the mother club, that is –turned 45 years old. But it is today, right here and now, that the CLMA did indeed go full circle. By serendipity, if not by Providence, with the mere presence here of Director General Joe Torres.

Surprised? Please indulge the reminiscences of this old man.

At the time of the founding of the CLMA on Sept. 24, 1978, the president of the Republic of the Philippines was Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. Today it is his namesake and junior, Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos.

The CLMA was birthed at the Department of Public Information, Region 3 office. Its first set of officers were sworn into office thereat by Information Secretary Francisco S. Tatad. Today, our inducting officer is PIA director general Joe Torres. In case you did not know, the Philippine Information Agency is the descendant of the Department of Public Information, that subsequently evolved into the Ministry of Public Information when the government experimented with the presidential-parliamentary system; then back to the Department of Public Information, and then into the Office of Media Affairs, until finally becoming the PIA after the EDSA Revolution of 1986.

Since Kit Tatad, no other head of the information agency ever showed up in CLMA induction ceremonies until today, with DG Torres.

There is the full circle.

It was my fortune to have been there at all stages of this agency’s evolution – with the bragging right of being the last regional director, albeit on OIC status, of the DPI and the first of the OMA, at the age of 27.

Apatnapu’t limang taon. Tunay na napakabilis ng takbo ng panahon, nang  alinsunod sa atas ng tungkulin bilang pinuno ng research, training and development division ng DPI, aking binalangkas ang CLMA at bumuo sa core group sa pagkakatatag nito. Ito po ang dahilan sa pagkakabit sa aking pangalan ng titulong “founding proponent” na siyang iginawad sa akin ng maituturing nating ama ng CLMA, si Director Ricardo Velasquez Serrano ng DPI-3 noon.

Samahan niyo akong gunitain man lang dito ang mga nagsilbing haligi ng CLMA, na matagal na ring pumalaot sa kabilang buhay: Alfredo Roxas ng Philippine News Agency at Benjamin Gamos ng Times Journal, na noo’y naka-base sa mismong tanggapan ng DPI, kaya’t sila na ring tumayo para sa Pampanga; mula sa Bulacan – Rod Reyes ng People’s Journal, at magkapatid na Jess at Bert Matic, ng The Reflector – ang una’t huling pahayagng broadsheet sa Gitnang Luzon; mula sa Bataan, Efren Molina ng Bulletin Today; mula sa Nueva Ecija, Pacifico de Guzman ng The Monday Post, Pete Salazar ng Dahongpalay, at Anselmo Roque ng Daily Express katuwang si Isagani Valmonte ng Times Journal; mula sa Tarlac mag-asawang Ben at Rose Razon ng Tarlac Star at radioman Ben Gonzales, Feliciano Pasion ng Manila Times, at DPI coordinator Luz Ducusin; mula sa Zambales ang mag-asawa ring Elpidio at Susana Curiano ng Olongapo News.

Baka po kayo malito, ang ikinukuwento ko po ay ang pagkatatag ng mother club – ang CLMA na una’t tanging “regional association of working media persons” sa buong Pilipinas. Mula po sa umbrella organization na ito umusbong ang mga provincial chapters na kabilang na nga ang ating binibigyang pugay at piging dito ngayon.     

Apatnapu’t limang taon. Mula sa murang edad na dalawampu’t apat, ngayon ay heto ako na kung minsan ay hindi na maala-ala ang ginawa ko makaraan ang dalawang oras lamang.

Kaya’t sinasamantala ko ang bawat pagkakataong tulad nito na maisawalat at maibahagi sa inyong mga nakababata ang nakaraan ng ating samahan, at least, yung sumasariwa pa rin sa aking kaisipan. Upang kahit na manawari ay maisapuso natin at maging matamis na ala-ala kundi man inspirasyon at gabay sa ating pagpapatuloy sa landas ng pamahayagan.

Itinatag ang CLMA sa kasagsagan ng hagkis ng batas militar. Hindi iilan ang nag-isip sa hanay ng mga mamamahayag noon na ito ay pakana lamang ng estado na kontrolin ang media, lalo na nga’t nabuo’t nilinang ang samahan sa Department of Public Information na tinutuya bilang “propaganda arm” ni Marcos.

Sa kabutihang palad, nagkataon na ang may timon noon ng DPI sa rehiyon, si Ric Serrano na nga, ay may mataas na pagpapahalaga sa kalayaan sa pamamahayag – dahil siya mismo ay nanggaling din sa hanay ng media.

Isa sa mga pangunahing dahilan sa pagbuo ng CLMA ay ang protektahin ang karapatan sa malayang pamamahayag – ito ay sa pamamagitan ng pagbigkis-bigkis ng mga indibidwal sa isang samahan – in union there is strength, saad nga ng kawikaan. Ang diwa ng ugnayan na umusbong sa mismong pagsilang ng CLMA ay ang kawikaang Tagalog: Sakit ng kalingkingan, ramdam ng buong katawan. Higit sa isang samahan lamang, ang layon ng CLMA ay maging isang kapatiran.

Anumang hagupit sa sinumang kapatid sa media ay tuwirang hagkis sa buong samahan. Kaya nga’t maraming beses na naglabas ang CLMA ng mga pagkundena sa mga nasa pamahalaan – local o national – pulis at militar, nanggipit, nanakot o nanakit sa hanay ng media. Tulad sa paghamon ng duelo ng isang armadong punong bayan ng Pampanga kay Jerry Lacuarta ng Bulletin Today na tanging pluma ang tangan sa kamay. O sa armadong pananakot kay Charlie Gatdula, ang Tarlac correspondent ng Bulletin Today, na napilitang mangibang bansa. Sa pagsalakay ng mga armadong alipores ng mayor ng Angeles sa programang Tagamasid sa DZYA nina Sonny Lopez ng Pahayagang Malaya, at Bong Lacson ng People’s Journal/Tonight. Sa pananakit at panghambalos ng mga tauhan ng Philippine Air Force sa mga Pampanga media na kumo-cover sa isang May Day protest rally sa noo’y Clark Air Base. Pati na rin sa pagdukot at pag-torture ng mga pulis ng Olongapo-Metrodiscom kina Joy Franklin Gonzales ng Daily Globe at Jess Malabanan ng Manila Standard dahil sa kanilang banat sa problema ng droga sa lungsod. Naganap ang mga ito noong dekada 80 at 90. Noong Disyembre 2021 si Jess Malabanan ay pinaslang sa Samar, at hanggang ngayon wala pa ring katarungan ang kanyang pagkamatay.

Sa kabilang banda, naging kasangga ng pamahalaan ang CLMA hindi lamang sa mga paglalahad ng mga programang pangkaunlaran nito kundi sa pagsisiwalat rin sa mga kalabisan, kakulangan, at korupsyon sa mga sangay ng gubyerno.

Binuo natin noon ang buwanang Central Luzon Media Forum sa tanggapan ng DPI kung saan naging pangunahing bisita natin ang mga miyembro ng Gabinete, gaya nina Blas Ople ng Labor na hindi lang minsan kundi maraming beses nating nakadaupang-palad at nakaututang dila, si Aber Canlas ng DPWH, Greg Cendana ng Office of Media Affairs, Jose Leido ng Natural Resources, at maraming iba pa.

Ang kasalukuyang Labor Secretary Benny Laguesma ay naging bahagi rin ng maraming okasyon sa CLMA magmula noong siya ay assistant director pa lamang sa DOLE-Central Luzon.

Hindi lahat ng ugnayan ng CLMA sa kapulisan at kasundaluhan ay mapait o may kapighatian. Sa katotohanan, minsa’y nakipagkapit-bisig din ang CLMA, kasama ang DPI, sa Regional Command 3 ng PC-INP sa Camp Olivas, San Fernando sa pangunguna ni BG Vicente Eduardo, at sa 5^th Army Brigade sa Camp Aquino, Tarlac sa pangunguna naman ni BG Benjamin G. Santos.

Sa ugnayang ito nabuo at ipinatupad ang tatlong malawakang kampanya:

Anti-Pollution Campaign, kung saan napilitang magpatayo at magpaandar ng mga pollution-abatement facilities sa isang azucarera sa Pampanga, at dalawang pulp and paper manufacturing company sa Bulacan at Bataan. Incidentally, the broad daylight ambush on CLMA father Ric Serrano in Quezon City in June 1998 was related to his anti-pollution efforts in his capacity then as regional director of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources. His murder, to this time, is unsolved.

Anti-Illegal Dikes Campaign, na nauwi sa pagbuwag at pagpapasabog ng 300 dike na sumakop sa mga kailugan ng Bataan, Bulacan, at Pampanga na umaagos sa Manila Bay.  Sanhi nito, nasama pa ang CLMA sa mga kasong isinampa sa korte ng mga ilang may-ari ng mga pinasabog na dike. Absuwelto naman po ang lahat ng mga kinasuhan.  

Anti-Illegal Gambling Campaign, na nag-resulta naman sa pagkakatanggal sa tungkulin ng isang humaliling regional PC-INP commander, ilang provincial commanders, at mga hepe ng pulisya sa ilang bayan at lungsod.  

Gaya ng anumang samahan, hindi rin nawala ang sigalot, bangayan, awayan sa CLMA. Sa katunayan nagkaroon pa nga ng mga suntukan sa isang induction ceremonies sa San Fernando, at sa isang eleksyon ng mga officers sa Olongapo.

Subali’t, sa bawat hidwaan, nanaig pa rin ang higpit ng kapatiran. Buhay pong saksi nito ang kasalukuyang president ng CLMA mother club, si Ginoong Vic Vizcocho ng Olongapo-Zambales.

Sa aking pananaw, walang anumang balakid na hindi natin malalagpasan, walang di-pagkakaunawaan ang hindi natin malunasan basta matibay ang ating bigkisan, habang sandigan natin ang katotohanan.   

Sa tibay at tatag ng anumang samahan, ang bawat isa, may posisyon mang hinahawakan o karaniwang kasapi lamang, ay pantay ang karapatan, malaya sa paghayag ng saloobin, walang kimkim na anumang agenda liban sa kapakanan ng samahan at bawa’t kasama dito.

Sa haba ng aking karanasan sa mga samahan sa media, aking nakita ang pinakamagagandang pagsasama-sama, pati na rin ang pinakasukdulan sa kasamaan. Isang hindi malilimutang aral mula sa mga taon ko sa seminary ang kawikaang: Mabuti ang pakikisama, huwag lamang maging pakiki-SAMA – the collective evils of pretensions to elitism, bloviated feeling of self-importance, sense of entitlement, mixed with the mentality of the mindless mob. This becomes even more toxic if it obtains in a press club, as it makes the total negation of the Journalism Code of Ethics.   

Sa mga nanunungkulan, higit ang tawag ng transparency at accountability. Dahil na nga ipinagkaloob sa kanila ang pamumuno sa samahan. Subali’t ang sovereignty, ay nanatili sa general assembly. Kaya’t anumang pasiya ng mga namumuno ay kinakailangan pa ring isangguni sa nakararami.

Ito ang mga kaisipang umiral sa akin sa pagbalangkas ng CLMA. Ito ang aking idinadalangin na maging pamantayan, maging kalakarang iiral pa rin sa ating kapatiran tungo sa mga susunod pang mga henerasyon. Tungo sa pagtaas pa ng antas ng pamahayagan sa ating pamayanan.

Sa pagsandig sa katotohanan at katapatan sa tungkulin bilang malayang mamamahayag, ito ang saligan hindi lamang ng aking matibay na paniniwala kundi ng aking buong pananampalataya sa Central Luzon Media Association, the premier press club.

Mabuhay ang CLMA. Luid ya ing Kapampangan. Dacal pung salamat.  

(Talumpating binigkas sa panunumpa sa tungkulin ng bagong pamunuan ng Central Luzon Media Association-Pampanga Chapter na ginanap sa Hilltop, Filinvest Mimosa + Leisure City, Clark Freeport, 6 Nobyembre 2023)

          

 

BSKE 2023: Winners who did not even run

YES, THERE are at least three I know who emerged even bigger winners than those elected despite their not running in the recent barangay and sangguniang kabataan elections. In no particular order now --   

 

First is Mabalacat City Mayor Crisostomo C. Garbo.

Of the city’s 27 elected barangay chairpersons, both incumbent and newbies, 27 have the mayor as their “preferential option,” okay – they are closely identified with Garbo. Why, at the hustings, there were even rivals that openly professed affinity with the mayor.

Sans any endorsement by Garbo, prohibited as it is by the election code, it was apparently enough for them to identify themselves with him to earn some kind of a seal of approval for the electorate to vote them into office.  

Here may be one instance of the transferability of electoral winnability, of victory by association, borne by the highly positive public perception of, at the very least, or the more solid tangibility to the electors of the accomplishments of the transferer, in this case, Garbo.

If it were a referendum, the 27-0 outcome of the barangay polls here would have been a resounding YES vote to the administration of Mayor Garbo, an indisputable affirmation of the effectiveness of his delivery of programs, projects, and services to the general contentment of his constituents. Hence, the “Garbo Factor” now entered in the political lexicon of Mabalacat City. 

The drubbing of formerly forever Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales in Barangay Dau then serving nothing more than sweet, sweet icing on Garbo’s cake.

And 2025 at this point already conceded as yet another cakewalk for the mayor.

Second is Angeles City Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin.

The city has 14 reelected barangay chairs and 19 new ones, including once Pampanga vice governor Robin Nepomuceno returning to Barangay Cutcut after a decade-long hiatus in favor of his wife Cecil who completed her third and final term.

Thirty-one of these 33 are aligned with the camp of Mayor Pogi. The two “outsiders” widely deemed too minuscule a political or numeric factor to make any bother in a city race.

What can be said as a minor “irritant” in the mayor’s smooth affairs with the barangays had been dealt with a definitive, devastatingly humiliating blow – long-time Barangay Malabanias chair Reynaldo Gueco, an erstwhile Lazatin ally, losing to “virtual nobody” Luz Nava, a staunch Pogi supporter, by 1,050 votes.

It is an attestation to Pogi’s political savvy that at this early – a year and three months into his second term – he has already consolidated an expansive political base more than enough for a run for a third and final term as Angeles hizzoner, or launching ground for that seat in the House to be vacated in 2025 by his brother Carmelo “Jon” Lazatin II.     

And third is one who not only did not run but had been ousted from office – Mexico ex-Mayor Teddy C. Tumang.

The unwavering trust and unshaken confidence of Mexico’s barangay leaders in the Ombudsman-deposed mayor were unambiguously evident in the results of the BSKE 2023: Of the 43 re-elected and newly-elected barangay chairs, only three – those of barangays Anao, San Miguel, and Suclaban – are unaffiliated with Tumang.

Anao, understandably, being the home barangay of House Senior Deputy Speaker Pampanga 3^rd District Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales – he whom the barangay chairs and Tumang himself pinpointed as the cause of all of Tumang’s predicament -- from his ouster from the mayoralty to his implication in the seizure of P3.8 billion-worth suspected shabu in a warehouse in the town, occurring over three weeks after he stepped down.    

In what has been immediately deemed as a triumphant vindication for the embattled former mayor was the contrasting results at the polls of two barangay chairmen that played key roles in the Tumang affair.

Association of Barangay Chairmen president Terence Napao who took the cudgel for Tumang and filed graft charges against Gonzales won his reelection bid in Santo Cristo.

Barangay Pandacaqui chair Christopher “Bombing” Punzalan who swore into office Tumang’s successor Ruding Gonzales lost what had long been claimed a family political fiefdom. Punzalan is the son of former mayor “Asenso” Ernesto whom Tumang avalanched in two mayoralty contests, the last in 2022.   

By sheer numbers, Tumang has maintained his solid political hold of Mexico with the overwhelming support not only of the barangay chairmen but more so of the electorate, unarguably.

Highly arguable though is how this will play out in the other three towns and the City of San Fernando that Tumang has set his eyes on to represent in the House of Representatives in 2025. Aye, the very cause of his “persecution,” he himself says, owing to the same ambition harbored by the senior deputy speaker’s daughter, neophyte 3^rd District board member Alyssa Michela “Mica” Gonzales.  

 

When winners lose

THE VAGARIES of Pampanga politics and, by extension, the nation’s too are nowhere more manifest in the barangay elections just past than in the main villages of the three cities – Balibago in Angeles, Dau in Mabalacat, and Dolores in San Fernando.

 

Mamac the vincible

FORTUNE, that which proverbially favors the brave such as the bemedalled police officer, did indeed gift Rodelio “Tony” Mamac invincibility in all his campaigns for the Balibago chairmanship dating back to the early aughts: unhampered even by his failed runs for the city mayorship in 2010 and the vice mayoralty in the polls that followed; beating the highest odds in one race when the sitting mayor openly campaigned against him with all the resources of his office.

Aye, Mamac proved – at one time, at least – that city hall can be beaten.

Thus, a charmed political life Mamac truly had in his Balibago run.

Reaching the term limit in 2018, he fielded his wife as his replacement and ran for kagawad. The better-half lost to the octogenarian former congressman and mayor Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin, even as Mamac emerged topmost among the councilmen. Seven short months after, Tarzan passed away and, by operation of law, the chairmanship was passed to Mamac’s hands anew.

Auspicious auguries assigned his reclamation of the Balibago chairmanship inevitably invited hubris. Whence, as the gods in Greek tragedy ordain, inexorably followed nemesis. Mamac’s in the person of former city councilor Joseph “PG” Ponce.

The chips may be long in falling, but when they fall, they fall all the harder. So, it was with Mamac. The Ponce team winning all but one in the seven-man slate for kagawad.   

 

Boking still losing

THE agony of defeat in his first foray for the Mabalacat mayoralty in 1992 was totally obliterated by the thrill of victory in all his successive runs starting in 1995, unbroken even after the declaration of his perennial rival Anthony Dee as “true winner” in one election in the 2000s issued by the Comelec all-too-late, close to the next polls and a TRO that precluded Dee from warming even but for a second the mayor’s seat.

For a time seemingly forever mayor Marino “Boking” Morales who transitioned the municipality into a component city savored nothing but electoral triumph up to the elections of 2016 – all of 21 years. The so-called “Morales doctrine” of circumventing by legal machinations the three-term limit only losing all merit in 2017 when the Comelec unseated him for being “DQ ab initio” after his 2016 victory.

His step down the mayorship segued to the 2019 polls with his run for the vice mayoralty, losing to the greenhorn Geld Aquino, his own nephew. 

Unfazed and seemingly even emboldened, he ran for mayor anew in 2022 and lost again – to incumbent Cris Garbo, the beneficiary of his disqualification five years before.

Untiring in winning, as unfatigued in losing. Thus, Boking running for the chairmanship of Barangay Dau, in his campaign spiel “the city within a city.” If only, perhaps, to invoke in the voters’ memory his co-fatherhood of the Mabalacat cityhood with the then-Congressman Tarzan Lazatin. Sadly, he was revoked soundly.  

Come to think of it, in running for barangay chair, Boking could have taken a page straight out of the political playlist of his proclaimed “idol” Cong Tarzan, who, after failing to wrest the Angeles City mayoralty in 2013 from incumbent Ed Pamintuan, ran and won – a month short of turning 84 at that! – the chairmanship of Barangay Balibago in 2018.     

In hindsight now, Boking should have rather took to the counsel of his original mentor, Gov. Bren Z. Guiao who, after his epic defeat in the 1995 gubernatorial contest against action star Lito Lapid, made his valedictory thus: “I have lost my appetite for politics, but not for public service.”

Then, Boking could have been spared the karma of being beaten badly by Derrick Dee, the son of his favorite whipping boy in his triumphant runs in the Mabalacat mayoralty races.

 Ngo-Ngo unreturning

UNBEATABLE. The only way for him to lose is by not filing his COC.

Thus, was spoken of Melchor Caluag, former multi-term chair of the City of San Fernando’s own version of Makati – Barangay Dolores – when his name was cast as candidate anew.

That many residents cannot recall any name other than Caluag as their barangay chair impacts the longevity and imports the sustainability of the successive rule – even reign perhaps – first of Melchor, then wife Vilma over Dolores.

As much to the business community as to the Caluag couple is owed the preeminence of Dolores as the capital’s booming central business district. 

This, factored verily in Vilma’s victory as first lady mayor of the City of San Fernando in 2022.      

This, reinforced with the outstanding performance of Mayor Vi right at the very start of her administration, and further enhanced by the slew of recognition heaped upon her by award-giving bodies in government and the private sector, at the local, regional, and national levels. All given extensive exposure in social media, to boot.

As though these qualifications were not enough to secure a sure win, Melchor dusted off the shelves his long-retired tried and tested campaign moniker, “Ngo-Ngo,” if only as good luck charm. 

And, with a putative pushover for an opponent, Ngo-Ngo could only be headed to a landslide victory.     

Alas, it was Ngo-Ngo that was pushed out of the winning circle. The man who took over the helm of Barangay Dolores after the ascent of Vilma to the mayoralty – then-No. 1 kagawad Allan Patio – got elected in his own right with a margin of 234 votes over Ngo-Ngo.

Alack, the winnability that Melchor crafted for his wife Vilma in his masterful management of the 2022 campaign, he failed to transfer to his own as Ngo-Ngo.

Melchor’s run being virtually a litmus test of the electoral efficacy of Vilma’s administration, his loss shall verily impact on her reelection bid in 2025. Indeed, the barangay polls, in the greater scheme of things political, being no more than a dry-run for the bigger local races.

At this early then, it’s time already for the Caluag couple and their political strategists to re-think: the impact of Vilma’s accomplished programs and projects, the value of all the awards she has been receiving, even the potency of tik-tok politics they have mastered and that served them in good stead in 2022. 

And yes, for them to seek the hand of the one not-so-unseen that snatched that “sure win” away from their keeping.

Aye, there’s the rub.