1971 redux

DÉJÀ VU. Been there. Seen that.
At the start of the campaign period, I was asked by coffeemates at Old Manila and Starbucks in SM City Pampanga how I sized up the gubernatorial contest.
With supreme confidence bordering on braggadocio, I said it would be a repeat of 1971, arrogating unto myself the wisdom of age, if not the gift of prescience. (Though still way short of the required years of enfranchisement in ‘71, I was by then already deeply enmeshed in the study of things political, be they local or global, be they elections or revolutions.)
Much too young to remember, my espresso buddies had to be oriented on the principal political events of ’71 – the bombing of the entire Liberal Party slate in the miting de avance in Plaza Miranda provoking the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus by President Marcos; the elections that year being the last before the declaration of Martial Law; and, most interestingly for them, the Pampanga gubernatorial candidates then.
A repeat of ’71 – primarily with the sitting governor finishing dead last in a three-cornered fight. Such was the qualification of my 2007 projection. Thus was the result of the elections: incumbent Gov. Mark Lapid outvoted by two other candidates. (Earned some bragging rights here for being right.)
Quick flashback to ’71 – at the initial stage of the campaign, incumbent Gov. Francisco Nepomuceno (the father of Blueboy, the congressman-turned-mayor, not the alleged impostor who also ran for Angeles City mayor) was being given a run for his money by the “Baby of the Masses,” the charismatic San Fernando Mayor Virgilio Sanchez. Then, from out of nowhere materialized the never-heard-of-before Brigido Valencia, whose only claim to fame was his being a logging magnate with concessions in far Mindanao and farther Indonesia. Funny now, I can’t even remember what town he came from.
No, Valencia did not invoke the name of God as reason for running. He did the next best thing: bring to Pampanga the political demi-god of the period – Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr.
At the grand miting in San Fernando, Ninoy in his characteristic sarsa proclaimed Valencia the only official candidate of the Liberal Party, effectively giving the lie to Sanchez’s claim of the same. Thus was the issues joined. Thus was the election won.
Apung Bidong the victor. Baby second. Mang Kitong third, and last.
Baby – Sanchez, that is – at second so impacted in my cranium that I did not just hope and pray but strove and worked that history would not repeat with the current Baby of the Masses.
Alack, that Irish saying proved right: There is no present, there is no future, only the past happening over and over.
Alas, Aeschylus was right: Not even the gods could alter what had been fated.
Thus it was that the beloved Baby of the masa,, notwithstanding the endearing moniker of Nanay appended to her name, tempted but ultimately succumbed to the Fates.
Pray that the ’71 parallel end there. For, what had the Valencia administration wrought for the people of Pampanga?
There is nothing I can think of. Help me out. I yield this column to anyone who can give a rundown of the programs, projects and accomplishments of the logger-turned-governor.
On a different game, he scored very high though. Apung Bidong had this yen – fulfilled and consummated – for a Sto. Tomas belle. But that was a private matter. No matter its very public display.
Touché.
No, God at the Capitol will prevent this from happening all over again.