Poll dead

OCA IS running for the House again.
That was Dingdong – neither the writer Cervantes nor the congressman Gonzales – holding Tuesday’s issue of Sun Star Pampanga before our coffee confederacy that found Starbucks SM City Pampanga a consolable replacement to our vanished lair that was La Nilad.
The paper’s bold, bold banner reads: Oca eyes Congress in 2013.
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Mayor Oscar Rodriguez has finally confirmed reports of his intention to run for Congress in 2013.
"I am eyeing of course for (sic) the position of congressman," Rodriguez said Monday after delivering his State of the City Address.
Rodriguez even kidded over Monday's date August 8, a known lucky number, to the code 8, which is used to identify members of the Congress…
Oh, I thought he had only eyes for his beloved Loleng and would be running in haste to nowhere but home in 2013.
That was Don Luisito, my seminary elder, trying hard not to laugh lest he choked at his own corn overdose.
Dead on arrival.
Politically speaking, that is, is Oca running against incumbent Congressman Dong Gonzales. So prejudged the prolific newsman too-often mistaken for Andal Ampatuan.
Quantify. Qualify.
Chorused the whole caffeinated assembly.
Oca can very well run for Congress. But he just can’t win against Dong.
Factor 1, youth – not to mention good looks – which is a premium in winning elections. Just about the only politico who parlayed his only-his-mother-could-love-mug into an avalanche of votes was Apalit’s Tirso Lacanilao. Truly one-of-a-kind. And that was in Apalit. And Tirso’s dead na.
So you’re saying Oca is too aesthetically challenged, to be politically correct, to fight Dong?
No. It’s just that Dong’s the better-looking one.
Factor 2, popularity and name recall. With all those roads, bridges, barangay halls, school buildings and multi-purpose whatever bearing his name in gigantic fonts, Dong’s a by-word in even the remotest villages.
But Oca was once third district congressman too…
But for you, who still remembers?
And Oca was even impacted into the national consciousness with his cross-examination brilliance as a member of the prosecution team in the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada.
So where’s Erap now? Becoming even more popular after being convicted, imprisoned, er, restricted to his farm, and later pardoned. So popular he managed to land second to the Oca-supported P-Noy in 2010!
Factor 3, war chest. And enough said there. Didn’t the Oca camp itself accused Dong of bankrolling the last phase of the campaign of the sick and unspirited Tiger Lagman that – but for the Iglesia vote – almost thwarted Oca’s final term as mayor?
Factor 4, services. Dong has thousands of scholars translating to tens of thousands of voters – the students, their parents and close relatives, naturally forming not only a support base but active campaigners. There’s Don Honorio Ventura owing its state university status to Dong. There’s the billion-peso Bacolor Rehabilitation Act. Then, there’s Dong’s health programs, not only comprising Philhealth card distributions but in dialysis centers and even cancer care…
So since when did Andal here become Lacierda to Dong Gonzales?
Since I had regular breakfast at his house with the Society of Pampanga Columnists coordinated by Sun Star GM Jun Sula.
Speak for yourself, Andal. I am not talking.
May we be reminded that there’s no finality yet in Oca’s decision to run for Congress. Unlike Yeng Guiao, at this early already determined to go on a rumble in the jungle with Congressman Tarzan Lazatin in the first district.
Oca himself was quoted in the same story as clarifying that the final decision rests on President Aquino and the Liberal Party. And if the President so desires, Oca would make a run for the Pampanga governorship.
Dead on the spot, there.
That would be Oca running against Governor Lilia Pineda. So prejudged the one codenamed J-1 of the now almost-famous J-10 Circle of Pampanga’s beloved Nanay and favorite Baby.
Quantify? Qualify? No need to.