Sinking ship syndrome
ARAYAT Mayor Chito Espino is reported to be the latest mayor to have abandoned the camp of Governor Mark T. Lapid, leaving only the “Tres Flores” – Peter of Masantol, Bobong of Macabebe and Edgar of Minalin – and Mabalacat’s Boking Morales as the remaining hold-outs.
How long can these “stubborn” four cling to Lapid’s boots is everybody’s guessing game now. One of them is being bruited to do a somersault this week. Not Boking, “most definitely,” after his cable-televised vow of “101 percent support for the governor.” Plus, there was Boking’s perennial antagonist Anthony Dee dropping his usual white t-shirt in favor of a polo shirt – though still in his signature shorts and slippers – to have his hands raised as the Pineda-Guiao candidate.
This is a first for the province. Not the collared Dee, not Boking’s vow, dummy, but the junking of Lapid. I cannot recall in my long years of observation-study-involvement in Pampanga politics of any other time that incumbent mayors deserted en masse an incumbent governor.
Or have you ever heard or read of the witty Governor Kitong Nepomuceno jilted by his mayors? Or the venerable Governor Paeng Lazatin junked?
Even in 1995 – at the height of the Lito Lapid magic – did the mayors dump the doomed incumbent Governor Bren Z. Guiao. Notable of those who dug their foxholes beside Bren’s in that war of attrition, so to speak, were Boking – loyalty is this guy’s middle name, Magalang’s Joey Lacson, Apalit’s Oca Tetangco, San Simon’s Maning Bondoc, Guagua’s Manoling Santiago, Mexico’s Ferdinand Meneses, and Sta. Ana’s Monching Barro.
There must be something about Bren and the other governors that epoxied the mayors to their person, no matter how futile their chances were at getting re-elected. That something is apparently sorely missing in the young Lapid.
The sinking ship syndrome, thus termed Guiao propagandist Jun Sula of the mass defection of the local executives from the Lapid camp. The mayors opting they would rather swim with Board Member Lilia ‘Baby’ Pineda – more appropriately perhaps, to ride the waves in her sleek yacht – than sink with Mark.
The ratty opportunism attached to the idiom does not apply here though, Jun was quick to say. With the mayors disclaiming any past favors to have received from the governor or future ones promised them by the Baby.
I have another take on the sinking ship thing. This is that of the admiral and his crew who sink with their ship. There is loyalty here. There is commitment here.
Had Lapid been committed to the needs of the mayors and their constituencies, would they have abandoned him?
The answer is all moot and academic.
Indubitably definitive though is that the dumping of Lapid by the mayors makes the strongest – and soundest – argument against that survey proffered by the governor’s camp – bitten and swallowed hook, line and sinker by undiscerning local mediamen – that the governor rates a high of 71 percent over the Baby’s miserable 13.7 percent.
Think. If Mark Lapid were really winning by a wide margin as that survey would like to make us believe, why are the mayors abandoning him? Something must be really wrong with the mayors. Or everything’s wrong with the survey.
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MY appreciation to The Outstanding Fernandino Awards Committee for voting me TOFA 2007 awardee in the field of journalism. Bista man e ku mibait San Fernando, pinili kung maging Fernandino. Iti e ku mu pagmaragul, nune dangalan ku.
How long can these “stubborn” four cling to Lapid’s boots is everybody’s guessing game now. One of them is being bruited to do a somersault this week. Not Boking, “most definitely,” after his cable-televised vow of “101 percent support for the governor.” Plus, there was Boking’s perennial antagonist Anthony Dee dropping his usual white t-shirt in favor of a polo shirt – though still in his signature shorts and slippers – to have his hands raised as the Pineda-Guiao candidate.
This is a first for the province. Not the collared Dee, not Boking’s vow, dummy, but the junking of Lapid. I cannot recall in my long years of observation-study-involvement in Pampanga politics of any other time that incumbent mayors deserted en masse an incumbent governor.
Or have you ever heard or read of the witty Governor Kitong Nepomuceno jilted by his mayors? Or the venerable Governor Paeng Lazatin junked?
Even in 1995 – at the height of the Lito Lapid magic – did the mayors dump the doomed incumbent Governor Bren Z. Guiao. Notable of those who dug their foxholes beside Bren’s in that war of attrition, so to speak, were Boking – loyalty is this guy’s middle name, Magalang’s Joey Lacson, Apalit’s Oca Tetangco, San Simon’s Maning Bondoc, Guagua’s Manoling Santiago, Mexico’s Ferdinand Meneses, and Sta. Ana’s Monching Barro.
There must be something about Bren and the other governors that epoxied the mayors to their person, no matter how futile their chances were at getting re-elected. That something is apparently sorely missing in the young Lapid.
The sinking ship syndrome, thus termed Guiao propagandist Jun Sula of the mass defection of the local executives from the Lapid camp. The mayors opting they would rather swim with Board Member Lilia ‘Baby’ Pineda – more appropriately perhaps, to ride the waves in her sleek yacht – than sink with Mark.
The ratty opportunism attached to the idiom does not apply here though, Jun was quick to say. With the mayors disclaiming any past favors to have received from the governor or future ones promised them by the Baby.
I have another take on the sinking ship thing. This is that of the admiral and his crew who sink with their ship. There is loyalty here. There is commitment here.
Had Lapid been committed to the needs of the mayors and their constituencies, would they have abandoned him?
The answer is all moot and academic.
Indubitably definitive though is that the dumping of Lapid by the mayors makes the strongest – and soundest – argument against that survey proffered by the governor’s camp – bitten and swallowed hook, line and sinker by undiscerning local mediamen – that the governor rates a high of 71 percent over the Baby’s miserable 13.7 percent.
Think. If Mark Lapid were really winning by a wide margin as that survey would like to make us believe, why are the mayors abandoning him? Something must be really wrong with the mayors. Or everything’s wrong with the survey.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY appreciation to The Outstanding Fernandino Awards Committee for voting me TOFA 2007 awardee in the field of journalism. Bista man e ku mibait San Fernando, pinili kung maging Fernandino. Iti e ku mu pagmaragul, nune dangalan ku.
posted by A.Caesar Z. Lacson at 10:03 PM
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