OPINION: The agreement

BLOGISTA
By Cha Monforte

Now it can be told that Compostela Valley Vice Gov. Ramil Gentugaya had earlier pledged not to run for Congress. I finally chanced upon Cong. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora at his base in Compostela town the other day and I got what I’ve long wished from him – to interview him tete-a-tete. To me, it was one of the rarest so I threw questions or lose him again.

There I got news right from the horses’ mouth, and what struck me was his information that VG Ramil, Gov. Chiongkee Uy, Boardmember Maricar and Cong. Way Kurat had already forged a prior agreement to avoid wrangling in the future and this is for VG Ramil to seek for his reelection as vice gov and for BM Maricar to run for the congressional post that his father is finishing to serve until 2010.

“That was the day after we took our oath of office,” Cong. Way Kurat recalled. And “I’ll stick to that (agreement),” he added.

I surfed the net when was really that, and lo, the joint oathtaking of newly elected Comval officials was June 30, 2007 (the twilight sky on that festive day was so colorful compliments of the fireworks display heralding the new administration themed in by Uswag Comval slogan). And so, the Ramil-Maricar-Chiongkee-Way Kurat agreement must be July 1, 2007. (Sorry, in my rush of writing a so good news the other day at an internet café in the interior Compostela town I missed to include the date, especially that a paying time is running against me).

When I reached his base at Compostela, Comval’s most popular politician Way Kurat, for ostensibly putting the province in the country’s map by his down-to-earth, newsworthy scenes and brims, was there in shorts and shirts calling up the Singapore embassy chancellor in Manila to help a distressed Comvalenya from Barangay Ngan, Compostela who was earlier imprisoned there but who could no longer be contacted by her relatives. The Singaporean official Cong. Way Kurat called as “my friend” pledged to help.

Things are revealing now particularly when reports were heard for sometime  that the governor had confided to several Lakas partymates and allies about his difficulties in walking in a tightrope just to keep the Comval unity surging given that he had already a prior commitment to BM Maricar. Ostensibly, this must be the continuation of the Cong. Way Kurat’s revelation that the governor has already “said his piece” and “Maricar is his choice”.

Cong. Way Kurat must have been optimistic still that the fortified Lakas-CMD would remain united with a powerhouse unity slate and that for the present running tiff between VG Ramil and BM Maricar over his post to end.  “The solution was already made,” he said referring to that July 1, 2007 agreement. He quipped that after I offered a scenario of BM Maricar running for the vice governor’s post and him for Compostela mayoral post, to keep the peace. It’s no-no, but for a win-win, VG Ramil must stick to the agreement.

But verily, Cong. Way Kurat is quite confident that VG Ramil will honor the agreement. “He is a good gentleman who has a word of honor… as well as the governor.” He knew VG Ramil too much, “from a good boy to a good man ….to a good politician and good leader in the province.”

With modesty, the congressman said that he molded VG Ramil in his political career starting when he was still the SK federation honcho after BM Maricar’s SK stint in the erstwhile undivided Davao del Norte. No wonder that the VG in his 2004 inaugural speech at Nabunturan Compre gym singled out and paid tribute to Way K with words as “my idol, my mentor”. That was the time when Gob. CK was first elected as a BM allied with ex-Gob. Joecab who defeated a token gubernatorial bet Trino Tirol.

From that interview, I also learned that the congressman and Monkayo Mayor Manuel “Junjun” Brillantes have no running feud between them and that they are seeing eye to eye and with a twosome of them leveling off . And that’s a far cry compared to the vice governor talking to the mayor only with a group, he said. But maybe the congressman is referring to the Friday Club at Marco. BM Maricar, too, is accordingly in constant communication with the mayor’s brother Lito and sister Olaycon Kapitana, Diel. I stand too apprised and updated now, thanks, but for a couple of weeks or so, I’ll wait for VG’s statement after the honeymoon with his beauteous, intelligent, Unilab executive better half- Joanna Ang-Gentugaya.

BLOGBUZZ: We still have to hear news after the scheduled meeting of the provincial directorate of Lakas-CMD in  Comval. Its chair is the governor, being the provncial Lakas chairman, with the other officers: vice chair- District 2 Cong. Rommel “Bobong” Amatong, secretary- BM Maricar, treasurer- VG Ramil, and the chairmen of the 5 committees held by Cong. Way K, Compostela Mayor Rey Castillo, New Bataan Mayor Lorenzo “Boy” Balbin, Nabunturan Mayor Macario “Dodong” Humol,    and Laak Mayor Rey “Reynab” Navarro, and provincial elder Pros Amatong as a member emeritus with also 1 vote like the rest…. Heard from the rounds after the NBI raid on the suspected culprit establishment where the UM Tagum sex scandal was camcorded. A lass just informed me, “Kuya di man to sex toy penis sa sex scandal nga na-mention nimo sa imong series of news ato, but a plastic container of Her Bench lotion.” I thought that Bench is only known of selling branded shirts and polos. For that, Bench company should better review the forms of its product containers at the risk of selling unwanted objects that someone may hold dear. (For online edition, visit my blog at: http://cha4t.wordpress.com, email: ruralurbanews@yahoo.com, or chamonforte@yahoo.com)

Filed under: boardmember maricar zamora-apsay, brillantes, compostela, comval congressmen, comval officials, comval politics, comval unity, cong way kurat zamora, cong. bobong amatong, congressman rommel amatong, laak mayor rey navarro, maricar apsay, new bataan, new bataan mayor lorenzo balbin, ramil gentugaya, ramil gentugaya wedding, trino tirol, vice governor ramil gentugaya, way kurat, way kurat zamora, boardmember maricar zamora-apsay, gov. chiongkee uy, nbi tagum tagum sex scandal, provincial elder pros amatong, tagum sex scandal update, tagum sex video scandal, vice gov ramil gentugaya

A close encounter with PGMA

Blogista

By Cha Monforte

It was already twilight when the then senatorial candidate and now President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo arrived and called up to be on stage at a miting de avanci in Nabunturan in year 1992. She was in white shorts and in t-shirt. Yuppie-like during her first run for senator. The town folks giggled and became rowdy upon hearing of GMA’s name, knowing she;s ex-President’s daughter. When she spoke, GMA right away held the audience captive by her audible voice and Bisaya words. It was the first and the last time yet that the PGMA stepped on Comval’s capital town.

She could have stepped anew in Nabunturan two years ago when she did not skip her Capitol visit during the time of ex-Gob. Joecab after PMS and PSG earlier scoured the Cabidianan Capitol. But by sudden turn of events, the helicopter ferrying her went straight to Compostela to see for herself the kalamansi seedlings and wati in the district office of Cong. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora. Joecab was left alone, and it was dyahi for him to go to Compostela and be with the group of his political nemesis who later caused for his defeat. But it was a so short visit, less than an hour or so on the 8^th of July 2006. But the brief PGMA’s pass with the Comval Lakas group was actually giving another shot of glory to Cong. Way Kurat at a time when there was another impeachment threat against the President.

But that time when the President went to Compostela town, Joecab was accordingly left at Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City where he was talking with the Chinese investors who wanted to do mining in Diwalwal and in Surigao. The Chinese investors were accordingly part of the PGMA entourage. Were they the ZTE Chinese investors that became the controversial subject of whistleblower Jun Lozada?

I got another honored chance of seeing, in fact meeting GMA so close when she was already a reelected senator in 1995. She accompanied her late father ex-President Diosdado Macapagal and late mother Dr. Evangelina Macaraig Macapagal at their ancestral house at Timoga, Iligan City. Well, her mother had inherited a good Timoga land overflowing with fresh and so cool spring waters, which some portions of which were occupied with what society calls as squatters, the dregs. There was a negotiation I facilitated between Dona Eva and the two groups of urban poor occupying the Macapagal properties at Timoga and Buruun.

The lasting impression I got when the negotiation ran between the urban poor and Dona Eva was that GMA and ex-President Dadong had never uttered a single word to intervene in the process. They just observed and listened.

At the end, the parties settled for the Timoga occupants to go for a relocation and the Buruun occupants to remain for an onsite settlement on interest-free direct purchase for a ten-year period under the administration of the Lualhati Foundation of the Macapagals. It was a win-win situation as the Timoga occupants were promised a relocation to Buruun property.

In huddle with GMA after the successful negotiation, she told the group of urban poor leaders she could well initiate for more legislations favoring the urban poor and asked me as a PCUP area coordinator then to send raw proposals from the ground. A close encounter with a still young PGMA could have you mum especially that she’s a really straight-talking intellectual. She uttered words like policy legislations.

Ex-President Dadong jokingly complained that he retired a poor President and that the Timoga lot was the only piece Dona Eva got from her parents. When he tapped my back on how important a coordinator’s role in mediating contending parties in the government housing programs on the ground level, oh how I was honored to be with the senator who later become the country’s President and an ex-President, modesty aside.

Today, a new PGMA is coming out for her 8^th SONA. I don’t how Filipinos describe her after her speech, while the SWS has just did her in. (For online edition, visit my blog at: http://cha4t.wordpress.com)

Filed under: compostela, joecab, nabunturan, way kurat, cha monforte, compostela, pmga, pmga in nabunturan