Oca's options

VERY MUCH undead.
Your report on Mayor Oca Rodriguez being politically dead in an encounter with either Congressman Dong Gonzales or Governor Nanay Baby Pineda was much too exaggerated.
Doing a Mark Twain on behalf of his beloved mayor was Bentong, a long time Rodriguez associate, who also takes his caffeine fix at SM City Pampanga.
Not me. It was Andal Ampatuan’s clone that pronounced our dear friend “dead on arrival” against Cong Dong and “dead on the spot” against Nanay Baby. So I wrote about it, did that make me the purveyor of that opinion?
But you so believed it that you even titled your column Poll dead.
Believer as I am in politics as the art of the possible, I cannot as yet consign our friend to a still-too-early political grave.
So you believe Mayor Oca can beat both Dong and Nanay Baby?
I believe Mayor Oca can win either as congressman or governor.
Now you’re talking. Quantify. Qualify. As you wrote in your column.
The easiest way for Mayor Oca to reclaim his third district congressional seat is to take Cong Dong out of the way.
Madre mia! You’re talking murder in broad daylight here.
You’re either stuck in The Godfather warp or haven’t gotten out of your The Sopranos mindset. No need to go to extreme prejudice here. The power of persuasion may well do the trick.
How?
Take Mayor Oca and Cong Dong to SM.
Isinasakay mo ako sa tsubibo, ah. (You’re taking me for a ride).
Why should I? By SM I mean Swap Meet. The two can work out the possibility of trading positions in 2013: Oca running for Congress, Dong for city mayor. Tapos na ang eleksyon. All other comers dead on the spot in such a situation. With both Cong Oca and Mayor Dong saving much in time, efforts and resources.
You’re talking sense now. That indeed makes the ideal scenario.
There’s only one problem here.
What?
Mrs. Elizabeth Panlilio-Gonzales is bent on running for city mayor, reportedly present in just about every wake and fiesta in the barangayas, distributing pairs of slippers to school kids, among other activities. And Cong Dong from all indications will not make his already-secured seat a quid pro quo if only to assure his wife’s victory.
An Oca-Dong confrontation is inevitable then.
Other than luring Cong Dong to the mayorship, there is yet another way to take him out of the congressional contest.
How?
From swapping positions to switching parties. Through some machinations, Cong Dong can be invited to the Liberal Party. In The Godfather parlance, make him an offer which he cannot refuse. And make the President himself make that offer. Once Cong Dong accepts, make him the LP-Pampanga chairman. As chairman, it would behoove him to be party standard bearer in Pampanga…
Dong runs for governor then, opening his third district seat to Oca.
Yes. But that is if Dong will ever turn yellow.
Indeed, too remote a possibility there.
If I were in Mayor Oca’s camp though, I would stop thinking of Cong Dong and would rather focus on the governorship.
Why?
For one, it is public knowledge that the Capitol has long been the object of Oca’s aspirations. And the governorship shall serve as the crowning glory of his political career. Congress? City hall? Been there, done that. Only the governorship is missing in a grand slam of sorts, and Oca will be in the select few of triple-title holders – only the third in Pampanga, if fading memory serves right, after Don Francisco Nepomuceno and Don Rafael Lazatin.
Then, under certain terms, it will be less difficult for Oca to win against Governor Nanay Baby than against Cong Dong.
Teka, teka. What did you say just now? Didn’t you write Oca dead on arrival against Dong but dead on the spot against Nanay?
That was said by Andal Ampatuan’s look-alike.
Okay, my turn to tell you again: Quantify. Qualify.
To repeat, under certain terms, it will be less difficult for Oca to win against Governor Nanay Baby than against Cong Dong.
Yes, by taking Nanay Baby out of the way…
Not necessarily. Oca can fight Nanay Baby on even terms but under certain considerations. And this is what a growing group of so-called concerned citizens are pushing. One, Nanay Baby to have Ang Galing Congressman Mikey Macapagal-Arroyo as running mate. Two, Oca to have the former governor, Among Ed Panlilio as his vice gubernatorial bet.
Oca-Among versus Nanay Baby-Mikey. I see a battle royale in the making.
What I see here is how the 2013 provincial contest can easily be packaged as the continuing crusade for morality and good governance, with Among Ed and Oca as shining images, against the grim backdrop of legal entanglements the Arroyos are caught in, woven around all those charges of corruption and cheating.
An Oca-Among ticket will most assuredly spark a revival of the so-called moral force that served as the suspended priest’s storm troopers in his 2007 campaign. Panlilio’s estranged supporters – except maybe Dona Lolita Hizon – may even return to the fold, given their closeness to Oca. In 2010, it was precisely that disgruntled group that pleaded with Oca to run for governor.
On the practical side, Panlilio in each of his two gubernatorial runs got over 240,000 votes – solid votes that can never be taken away from him. While those were but half of Nanay Baby’s total of 488,521 in 2010, they would not stay static in any way, given Oca’s own support base, not only in the City of San Fernando but in the third district.
And then, there is the President himself to go the full nine yards with the Oca-Among ticket, convinced as he will be that it is one more juggernaut against the Arroyos.
So, you’re saying now Oca would not be dead on the spot against Nanay Baby?
I am saying Oca’s winning the governorship is not impossible. Like the Adidas blurb says: “Impossible is nothing.”
Then, winning is everything?
No. Winning is the only thing.