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.