4 vying for Congress in Benguet May polls

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Agpas, Chamos, Cosalan, Dulnuan are the names you will find in your ballot when you go and vote for your congressman in Benguet on election day. That is the arrangement in alphabetical order but that may not be the ranking at the end of the day.

It is a four-cornered fight for the congressional seat in Benguet. Atty. Ronald “Ronnie” M. Cosalan, former congressman; and businessman Jack Dulnuan were among the first to file their certificates of candidacy earlier than last week.

The two other candidates are La Trinidad councilor Thomas “Tommy” Chamos and Atty. Lizo Agpas, former provincial board member who filed their certificates before the deadline on December 1st.

Agpas, Chamos and Cosalan have been elected into public office in the past except for Dulnuan who has concentrated his time in putting up a business empire consisting of a chain of restaurants, agriculture, a technical school, motor shop, and has indulged lately in operating a fleet of buses formerly owned by the Dangwa family.

Manong Lizo Agpas has served well as mayor of Kapangan then provincial board member until 2007. I know him as a serious legislative worker. He was the prinicipal author of the Environment Code of Benguet when he was provincial board member.

Councilor Tommy Chamos is a third termer councilor of La Trinidad, the capital town of Benguet . He once ran for mayor before becoming councilor, but lacked the needed votes. His late father Chamus was once mayor of La Trinidad.

Atty. Ronnie Cosalan belongs to a family of public servants. His mother is a retired public school teacher from Kiangan, Ifugao. His grandfather served as mayor of Lagawe after the war.

Atty. Andres Cosalan, his father, was the last congressman to represent Baguio-Benguet, before the city and the province split into two separate districts. At the age of 44, Ronnie won as an independent candidate for congressman and served from 1995 to 2001.

Like all the rest of the candidates vying for different positions, Ronnie Cosalan hopes that voters in the coming election get rid of the clannish means of electing their leaders as he strongly believes that people should choose as “One People – One Benguet,” not as Kankanaey, Ibaloi, Kalanguya, Ibontoc, Ilocano or even Tagalog.
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I have been wondering why our lawmakers in the house composed of administration allies re-enacted budgets in the past, especially during election years. In college, I learned that if no budget for the coming year is passed, the General Appropriations Act of the previous year is automatically re-enacted.

This also means that the funds have already been allocated to projects. And since the funds have been allocated last year, then the projects have also been finished. If so, then a budget that is re-enacted will appear again with the corresponding projects that have already been implemented last year.

It is a simple case of double enactment but it is more like a case of double funding. And since the projects have already been implemented last year, it now looks like the country has billions of pesos of unused budget.

My problem now is how to disabuse my mind from thinking that with the projects for which the funds allocated were already implemented, this administration can “manage” at will a soon-to-be re-enacted budget in the 2010 elections.
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A few selected infomercials on TV and radio that should work as medium to promote products, in this case – politicians, do not seem to work right. Maybe, they do for others but for me and some people, they are unconvincing half-truths made up to make the subject look so good.

For example, former defense secretary Teodoro’s political ad talks about him as gifted with galing at talino, in addition to a statement about the need for a president who can lead a country in pain to a healing process (paghihilom), not someone who would seek vengeance (bengansya).

Teodoro’s political ad proclaims that his winning can heal the scars of this country as he has repeatedly said so, but at the same time implies that those who caused us pain may not be sued in court.

Some have gotten used to the “forgive and forget and start again” syndrome or the “magpatawad, kalimutan ang nakaraan at magsimula.” But sticking to it will not lead to anything good, as pain swells if the cause is not found and treated. While a country’s wounds certainly need to be cured, it is but natural to find out the truth behind such pains.

As to the galing at talino ad, I just wonder why such was not applied to disarm the government-sponsored private armies in Maguindanao before any massacre occured, since co-party members earlier knew and already felt during the party meetings that a heated row between the Ampatuans and Mangudadatus was on.

In the same manner, the rest of the infomercials for the other presidentiables are statements and images that make holy saints out of their subjects, although, some presentations were better.

But Gibo’s ad is better than that of Manny Villar’s one-liner saying something like “ang mahirap ay tumutulong sa kapwa mahirap.” I ask, has that “tulong” been there ever since or does it only come before elections?

By the way, a good one-liner ad for a political party that I will not name should go like “ang magnanakaw ay takot sa kapwa magnanakaw,” or better yet, “ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw!”

Anyway, political promo ads are nothing better than cosmetics. They are as good as sardines advertisements. Promoters of politicians’ seem to have forgotten the quotation by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra that says “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” – marchfianza777@yahoo.com