By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
Here are some of the juicy rumors regarding the last local election. The biggest one was a prominent official should have been out of office just before D-Day but surprisingly the court order was not released and served. Abangan! Well, only in the Philippines.
Some candidates were allegedly paid by other candidates to run or to remain in the race to siphon off votes from the candidate to beat in the city. Certainly, big amounts changed hands. Typical political horse trading.
Then there was the candidate who was thought to be a strong contender but I doubted it at the outset. Apparently, the candidate’s camp, despite the huge amounts disbursed for the campaign was unable to shake off the “tradpol” reputation that hounded them for a long time already. So their bet badly lost.
I have to repeat what I said here earlier. The Mountain Province voters are still a force to reckon with in Baguio City. Their having come out in droves to campaign for Congressman-elect Domogan several elections ago made the late Midland Courier columnist Benny Carantes entertain the idea of relocating to her mother’s place of origin somewhere in the lowlands.
In fairness, however, to Domogan he had consistently took care of his reputation. For many decades, he could have scandalously filled a lot of government offices with his appointees but he always stuck to what was proper. He always went by the merits. Otherwise, he would have antagonized a lot of his supporters who are Ilocanos or Pangasinenses. So much so that his opponents could not bring out anything that could have tarnished his name.
A big surprise from the election results was the Performance of Popo Cosalan. He got second best in the city’s congressional run. Does that mean our Ibaloi friends are now ready to gain political control over the city in the near future? If, or when, that happens, it would be just right. That should have been the case ever since.
What bugs me to no end, was the decision of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Go to both run for Baguio’s two highest political positions. While they might have the brains and the money for it, I think they miscalculated the indigenous culture and values of the people here. While deep inside the people of Benguet is the tradition to look up to the “baknangs” or the traditionally rich in the community, it is also true there is the Igorot sense of egalitarianism in them. That, I guess, runs across the board in all Cordilleran tribes. The idea of holding “kanyaos”, for instance, is to share one’s blessings to those who have less in life.
As I cited last time, “Adi tako bokodan di gawis”—we should not have a monopoly over the good things in life– should have been more appreciated.**
