Deja vu, 2007

STACKED BOXES reportedly containing 13,000 affidavits of voters claiming that what they shaded in their ballots did not match the results from the automatic counting machines impacted the gravity of the election protest Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab filed against Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag.

This, the protestant’s lawyer himself, Atty. Jep Miranda, conveyed upon filing the case at the Comelec Central Office on May 22.   

The protest is grounded on: 1) the statistically improbable voting pattern - most notably the unprecedented and highly unlikely outcome in which Pineda-Cayabyab did not even win a single precinct; and 2) consistent vote misattribution across varying voting demographics, strongly suggesting digital scaling or manipulation in favor of the presumptive winners.

A manual recount of all ballots cast in the city's 239 precincts is therefore prayed for. To determine, beyond any iota of doubt, if indeed the proclaimed winner is the genuine winner.

Reading the news demisted senescent memory of an electoral similarity a short 18 years back, albeit on the provincial level.

Comelec-Pampanga election officer Atty. Temi Lambino proclaims Ed Panlilio winner in May 2007. Photo: Ivan Henares FB page

Riding on the high horse of morality, suspended priest Among Ed Panlilio was proclaimed by the Comelec as winner of the gubernatorial race in May 2007 by a margin of 1,147 votes over then-board member Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda.

Citing misappreciation of the ballots by the board of election inspectors, the Pineda camp filed an election protest. It was claimed that ballots containing votes cast for “Nanay Baby” were not credited to Pineda although such nickname was registered with the Comelec as her nickname.

In February 2010, the Second Division of the Comelec ordered Panlilio to step down from the Pampanga governorship after a recount found that Pineda garnered 190,729 votes against Panlilio’s 188,718, or a margin of 2,011.

“We find sufficient merits in this election protest case. The division hereby resolves that the protestant Pineda is the duly elected governor of the province of Pampanga after review and examination of the contested ballots in this election protest,” the Second Division’s over 11,000 pages long resolution stated.

Panlilio though managed to hold on to office, availing himself of legal remedies. And helped by no small measure by Pineda’s let-him-finish-the-term nonchalance given the upcoming 2010 elections.

The correctness of the Comelec action proclaiming Pineda as the “real winner” in the 2007 gubernatorial contest was affirmed in the 2010 Panlilio-Pineda rematch: the unseated governor losing to Nanay by a whopping 230,000 votes.

This was reaffirmed further in their 2013 rivalry with Nanay garnering 507,407 votes against Panlilio’s 125,407.

Figurative and literal, Panlilio’s election returns diminished after each contest he entered. In his most recent aspiration for vice governor, he managed to achieve the highest number of votes ever in elections he entered – 387,056. Unfortunately, 364,021 short of even just levelling with Dennis “Delta” Pineda’s avalanching 751,077 votes.  

So, how will all these figure now in the protest case at hand?

Of the demystified proverbial lightning striking for the Pineda’s twice? As with Nanay – the misappropriation of ballots corrected, so with Mylyn – the misattribution of votes righted? And all electoral victory for her thereafter?

I don’t know. It’s purely a sense of déjà vu to this old man. A strong one at that.

   

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Waxing, waning. Winning, losing.

 

                    Winners all: The Gonzaleses

POLITICAL FAMILY fortunes -- triple, double, mixed – and misfortunes too, abounded in the recent polls in Pampanga. So, the ABS-CBN’s Halalan 2025 Election Results show. So, all winners have been proclaimed by the Comelec too.

Perfect three-of-three scored the family of outgoing House Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales: daughter Mica taking up his post as 3^rd District representative; son Brenz, vice mayor of the City of San Fernando; and wife MyMy, 3^rd District board member.

Sans the INC vote, all three gaining insurmountable lead over all comers in their respective posts is – to believers – an irrefutable testament to Cong Dong’s political mastery. That, unbelievers sneer at as magical mystery.

                            The Pinedas: Still strong at the Capitol

Three-of-four went the Pinedas: Nanay and son Delta switching the gubernatorial and vice gubernatorial chairs; daughter Esmie reelected as Lubao mayor; younger daughter Mylyn failing short in her CSF mayoralty try.

Two plus one in Macabebe. Even before the polls, two Floreses were already guaranteed reelection unopposed as they were: the legendary Zorro, Mayor Bobong and his son VM Vince. Winning a seat in the town council is Uncle Bet, though said to be estranged from the father and the son. So, what else is new among these Floreses?

                                         Lazatin brothers still on a winning run

Two-for-two for the Lazatin siblings in their post exchange: Mayor Carmelo Jr., famously Pogi, unopposed for the 1^st District; Cong Carmelo II, distinctively Jon, landslide winner for the Angeles City mayoralty.

Pampanga’s long-running conjugal politics guaranteed to stay for another three years at least: 4^th District Rep. Dr. Anna York Bondoc-Sagum and husband San Luis Mayor Dr. Jay Sagum.

                                   Conjugal politics: Cong Anna and Dr. Jay

Winning husband and wife also: unopposed Guagua VM Jun Lim and 2^nd District board member Claire-David-Lim.

Couples to serve in separate LGUs are Soy Guevarra at No. 3 in the Sta. Ana council and Trina Dizon at No. 8 in the Mexico council.

Separate LGUs likewise for reelected Mayor John Sambo of Sto. Tomas and wife Marjorie Morales-Sambo, No. 6 in the Mabalacat City council.

Speaking of Marjorie, she will serve in the same local legislative body with half-sibling Ike Morales (No. 1). A third progeny of once-forever Mabalacat City mayor Boking Morales was elected to the Bamban, Tarlac council – Bap Morales at No. 6.

                                               Victorious Capil father and daughter in Porac 

Despite the legal entanglements over the POGO yoke around his neck, Porac Mayor Jing Capil made not only a highly convincing win but even lifted his daughter Jen to the vice mayoralty.

Can’t talk of Porac without any mention of the Lapids. Aye, Senator Pinuno aka Supremo, aka Leon Guerrero held on the 11^th spot in the Upper House. Son Meynard taking second spot in the town council.

Still in Porac: Number 1 board member of the 2^nd District Fritzie David-Dizon, her brother Dexter David coming back to the town council at No. 5.

Father and son in Bacolor: unopposed Mayor Diman Datu, No. 2 councilor Jude Edward.  

                                The Labungs: BM Lucky in the 3rd District, Mayor Dinan in Sta. Ana

A variation of the same in Sta. Ana: first-time Mayor Dinan Labung, reelected 3^rd District board member Lucky.  

Mother-daughter in Sto. Tomas: VM Gloria “Ninang” Ronquillo, first time councilor Ara at No. 5. Ronquillo son Raymond though lost in his mayoralty bid.

Uncle-niece in Masantol: Returning Mayor Dan Guintu, first time VM Buday Guintu.

Their double victory spelling the wholesale defeat of the Bustos family: Patrol Rep. Jorge avalanched in the 4^th District congressional race; son Mayor Ton Ton losing after a single term; nephew Joshua, also-ran for the vice mayoralty.

                               Triple loss for Bustos 

Double whammy in Mabalacat City: “sure winner” Mayor Cris Garbo upset by “upstart” Atty. Geld Aquino; Garbo daughter Winwin losing in her vice mayoral bid against Jun Castro.   

                                    The Garbos: Upended in the mayorship, upset in the vice mayoralty

Twice the impact of a double loss obtained in couple Danilo and Aniway Baylon: As in 2022, so in 2025 – the husband failing in his gubernatorial bid, the wife in the Candaba mayoralty. Both, miserably.

Father-daughter under the losing column: Rolly Macalino 4^th in the 3-seat 3^rd District provincial board; Doc Ayzel 13^th in the 10-slot CSF council.

First try unlucky for Architect Alex Tumang in the Mexico mayoralty race and his niece Dr. Hazel Tumang for the 3^rd District congressional seat.  

Double loss for siblings Paul Quiwa, third and last in the 3^rd District congressional race, younger brother Perico 14^th in the CSF council race.

And then, the instances of unosinotra – a Spanish term – alternate, staggered, one-for-the-other – finding common ground in the disparate world of engineering, cockfighting, and yes elections in the Philippine political setting.  

One wins, the other loses. Suerti nang Pedru, malas nang Huwan. Mipa-pamilya la man. So, we Kapampangans are wont to say.

In Magalang, Mayor Malu Paras-Lacson was reelected, her brother-in-law Norman lost in his comeback bid for vice mayor.

In Sta. Rita, Mayor Art Salalila was unseated by newbie Reynan Calo; his brother Dagi, with whom he has had win-loss contests for the mayorship, won as vice mayor.

In San Simon, his multiple suspensions from office notwithstanding, Mayor Abundio “JP” Punsalan was reelected; his daughter Janice aka JP lost in the vice mayoralty race.  

Win some, lose some. Wax, wane. What is there to see?

Political families are here to stay.

So, you’re mad about it?

Look at just the three elections past and be dismayed.

Look further back and despair.

 

 

 

                       

Pampanga remains Pineda stronghold

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Notwithstanding the stunning loss in the capital city, Pampanga firmly remains a Pineda stronghold.

With 99.72% of the election returns transmitted as of 5:45 a.m. on May 14, the already proclaimed governor-elect VG Lilia “Nanay” Pineda garnered 707,782 votes against rival Danilo Baylon’s 475,200. Of Pampanga’s two component cities and 19 municipalities, Baylon won only in his Candaba hometown, beating Pineda by 8,053 votes.

In the vice gubernatorial race, incumbent Gov. Dennis “Delta” Pineda swept all towns and cities with 748,782 votes against former Gov. Ed Panlilio’s 385,926.    

Under the Pineda banner, mayors in the towns of Apalit, Bacolor, Macabebe, Minalin, and San Luis ran – and naturally won – unopposed, further solidifying their political dominance over the province.

First District

In the 1^st District, all the Pineda allies registered triumphs.

Unopposed for the congressional post, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin still managed to get 262,517 votes.

In Mabalacat City, the Atty. Geld Aquino-Marcos “Jun” Castro team-up upended the popular tandem of incumbent Mayor Cris Garbo and his daughter Win-win. Aquino had 69,244 votes against Garbo’s 50,822.

Magalang Mayor Malou Paras-Lacson with 37,406 votes won anew against former Mayor Romy Pecson with 28,634.

 Second District

In the 2^nd District, the Pineda hometown of Lubao remains in the family’s keeping: daughter Esmie Pineda reelected with 58,657 votes against contender Salvador Dimson Jr’s 15,208.

Guagua Mayor Tonton Torres was reelected with 38,819 votes drubbing former Mayor Dante Torres’ 13,681. 

Reelected too was Sasmuan’s Lina Bagasina Cabrera with 12,677 votes against Charito Montemayor’s 7,781.

The district produced two new mayors:

Floridablanca’s Michael Galang winning with 26,713 votes against Darren Manalansan with 24,937.

Sta. Rita’s Reynan Calo with 14,256 votes beating incumbent Art Salalila with 10,543.

In Porac, POGO-infected incumbent Mayor Jing Capil won with 39,939 votes against Mike Tapang’s 23,063. Even as Tapang was backed by the Pineda patriarch, Capil did not decamp to their rivals.   

Third District

The City of San Fernando made a defiant stand against the Pinedas with Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag entering into an axis with Baylon and Panlilio.

Caluag’s Team Laban San Fernando’s 12-0 rout of Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab’s ticket, punctuated by the incumbent’s 127,124 votes against the challenger’s 49,061, did indeed impact heavily on the perceived political invincibility of the Pinedas in Pampanga.

However, the blow mattered little, if any, to the race for the Capitol. Nanay still managing to get 86,348 as against Baylon’s 84,229, and Delta snagging an even higher 89,349 vis-à-vis Panlilio’s 77,384. This despite the programmed demonization of the Pinedas in the capital city from Day One of voter’s registration.

In Bacolor, unopposed Mayor Diman Datu and Vice Mayor Ron Dungca are dyed-in-the-wool Pineda men.

In Mexico, incumbent Mayor Ruding Gonzales (46,487 votes) and opponent Arch. Alex Tumang (37,168 votes) were Pineda supporters both.

The same held in Sta. Ana, the Pineda patriarch’s open support to eventual mayoralty winner Dinan Labung (17,314 votes) did not push also-ran Banung Barro (11,757 votes) out of the Pineda orbit.

In Arayat too, triumphant Jeffrey Luriz (38,765 votes) keeping the Pineda mother-son tandem in all his campaign collaterals, even with Delta joining losing incumbent Mayor Madir Alejandrino (7,098 votes) in her campaign sorties.   

Fourth District

Unopposed Mayors Jun Tetangco of Apalit, Philip Naguit of Minalin, and Jay Sagum of San Luis even before the campaign period already joined Delta in his various service deliveries in the province.

Even as Nanay lost by 8,053 votes to Baylon in his Candaba hometown (her 31,171 against his 39,222), incumbent Mayor Rene Maglanque trounced Baylon’s wife Aniway anew, 40,267 to 26,438. Her votes even 630 lower than those she got in their first contest in 2022. Maglanque’s on the other hand increasing by 1,073.  

Unopposed Macabebe Mayor Leonardo “Bobong” Flores has long proven himself to be a die-hard Pineda ally, dating to the early days of Nanay as Lubao mayor.

By design, perhaps, of the rivals themselves, the political heat that obtained in San Simon did not reach the provincial level. While the eventually reelected Mayor JP Punsalan (18,114 votes) was all over the Pineda campaign, also-rans Dading Santos (17,581) and Rommel Bondoc (2,281) did not display any sympathy for the Baylon-Panlilio tandem.   

In Masantol, openly Pineda-backed Dan Guintu successfully made a comeback to the mayorship he held for three terms, his 19,673 votes beating incumbent Mayor Ton Ton Bustos’s 16,193.

In Sto. Tomas, all three contenders carried the Pinedas in their campaign materials. Of utmost significance is the support for the Nanay-Delta tandem of incumbent Mayor Johnny Sambo, famously loyal acolyte of Panlilio since his time as the town’s parish priest. Sambo’s 11,892 votes ensured his reelection bid against Raymond Ronquillo’s 9,593 votes, and Matias “Bong” Pineda’s 7,869 votes.     

Only Vilma

In a headcount of the chief executives of Pampanga’s 19 municipalities and two cities, only the capital city’s Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag stands outside the Pineda line.

Quo vadis, Baylon? Et tu, Panlilio?

Where go Baylon and Panlilio now? Each has twice been beaten for the governorship of Pampanga.

Panlilio who has kept the reverential “Among” despite the suspension of his priestly faculties was avalanched with votes in contests with Nanay in 2010 and 2013. His being declared winner by the Comelec in 2007 even negated by the proclamation of Nanay as “true winner” via electoral protest shortly before the 2010 elections. 

The one who once went by the moniker “Anak ng Ama” (Barabbas in Aramaic) losing to Delta in 2022 and to Nanay in the election just past. In each instance getting no higher than 41% of the vote.

For the hopelessly hopeful, 2028 is already on the horizon and, as it’s cliched, third time’s the charm. Maybe, just maybe, all Baylon has to do is consult his wife Aniway for omens. Wasn’t she bruited about as being possessed -- sinasapian, sinasaniban? – by the Virgin during her preachings?

Who knows, Baylon may just do a Vilma in Pampanga.

 

Voter's lament: The fate we choose

A VOTER’S lament penned a week before the May 9, 2016 elections republished here a few days to this year’s polls in all its forebodings. Unheeded then, to the nation’s sufferance. Will we ever learn?

The fate we choose

AT NO time in Philippine electoral history has the basest in the Filipino character emerged in all its blackness than in this election at hand. Arguably, I must concede.

Even as the breadth of ignorance has always vastly covered the political field, nothing compares to its expanse this time, unreason and illogic the standard rule of exchange from the longest disquisitions to the shortest one-liners. To the inordinate advantage of the brute over the sapient.

Indeed, to paraphrase some philosopher: “By simply going on being absurd, a thing can become godlike; there is but one step from the ridiculous…” to the insane. 

Yes, and there is never a lack, on the contrary always a surfeit, of fanatical fools to behold eminence in tomfoolery. As we see now, they who find hilarity in the hideous, propriety in profanity, righteousness in absolute wrongs.

While vitriol has always formed part of the campaign arsenal, the past has nothing that can approximate the level of toxicity attendant to the current political discourse.

Indeed, the bigotry and hatred of high partisanship this time already abutting on depravity.

What one wished not on one’s worst enemies, is now routinely cast upon anyone differing from one’s choice for the presidency – from murder and mayhem, to rape of the entire family, infant members not excluded. Melai Cantiveros, Renee Julienne Karunungan, you are not alone. I feel you.

Why, rape – in rigor mortis, notwithstanding – has ceased as heinous degeneracy to become no more than a stand-up joke! All protests to its inhumanity dismissed with a condescending “Shut up!” Verily in character with one who has resorted to bluster to get the better off blunder. 

Yes, and what can one make of one who announced to all and sundry that for all he cared, his candidate can kill anyone he deemed an enemy of public order, rape all the women he wanted, even his own wife, and still would not budge from voting for him! 

Ah, to what absurdity have we indeed reduced ourselves!

Even the sacred lessons from the Bible, now no more than fair game to the truth-twister’s spin.

So, God did not call the qualified, but rather qualified those whom He called – from the stuttering Moses to the adulterous David, from the cheating Jacob to the womanizing Samson, from the denying Peter to the persecuting Paul. So, one imperfect candidate’s hordes now preach in the web.

So, shall God too qualify the cursing, womanizing, self-confessed murderer then?

Not so fast, ‘tards. The qualification from God – as the Good Book also holds – comes after the remorse, repentance, recompense, and renewal of those He called.

When but a simple apology, much less repentance is inextricable from the one He now supposedly to have called and be still the chosen one, then God could have as easily qualified Beelzebub himself.     

Ah, to what abyss have we sunk!

So how can we then vote, as we should – to quote Baruch Spinoza – with the full “… use in security all (our) endowments, mental and physical, and make free use of (our) reason”?

Alas, we have always pined for the honorable might-have-been.

Woe unto us to soon be ruing the despicable might-not-have-been.

Such is the fate we choose.