‘Mr. Railroadman’ running for QC mayor

BLURBAL THRUSTS

Louie Logarta

11/01/2009

Two Makati policemen — identified as SPO2 Edward Maranan and PO2 Vergenio Costa of the warrant section — last week attempted to arrest journalist Lyn Resurrection of the Business Mirror, a newspaper owned by Ambassador Antonio Cabangon Chua, on the basis of a libel complaint filed against her by a top official of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Said arrest was in blatant disregard of an existing memorandum of agreement (MoA) signed exactly eight years ago between the National Press Club, the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police.

Signatories to the document were then DILG Undersecretary Alipio Fernandez (now mayor of Dagupan City), then PNP Chief Larry Mendoza (now secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications) and yours truly in my capacity back then as NPC president. That MoA, for the information of all and sundry, was grounded on an earlier agreement entered into in 1990 by former Defense Chief Fidel Ramos and former NPC president Butch del Castillo.

What really exasperates us is the fact that incidents like this keep on cropping up every so often despite our constant entreaties for PNP top brass to order their people to respect the MoA which assures bona fide mediamen, especially NPC members, of freedom from harassment by powerful public officials who are out to shut them up by means of a libel suit.

On two occasions earlier this year, when they appeared during the NPC’s weekly televised news forum Meet the Press aired over Channel 4, PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa and Director Roberto Rosales of the National Capital Region Police gave assurances that law enforcers would henceforth would be strictly enforcing the MoA; but it appears that these are mere empty gestures.

Our friend Mike Defensor (Mr. Railroadman as Judge Jorge Lorredo of the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court likes to call him) has been making the rounds in Quezon City, trying to enlist the support of several key local officials in his bid to succeed outgoing Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, who is serving out his final term, in city hall.

But unless there is a drastic alteration in the political landscape, Defensor’s dream of becoming top gun of the nation’s richest local government unit, with revenues breaching the P10-billion mark in 2008 according to City Treasurer Vic Endriga, will remain that way, just a dream.

Defensor, who was appointed last year as head of the Philippine National Railways by Arroyo as consuelo de bobo after losing quite badly in the 2007 senatorial elections, is at the moment considered a long shot to make it to city hall because he lacks the necessary campaign machinery (read: warm bodies) to make him win outside of his bailiwick in the 3rd district.

Due to his association with Malacañang, he was formerly secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and before that presidential chief-of-staff, Defensor is nowadays viewed as extremely unpopular with the QC electorate who have a long history of voting for the opposition, much like in Cebu City.

Not a few barangay chairmen and kagawads we talked to indicated

they were taken aback by Defensor’s move since it had come “very late in the day” as there were already several notable others who had expressed their desire to run for mayor in 2010 — like Vice Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista, Council majority leader Ariel Inton, Rep. Annie Susano of the 2nd district, Rep. Nanette Daza of the 4th district and comedian Willie Revillame who is allegedly being drafted by the camp of “presidentiable” Sen. Manny Villar as the standard bearer of the resurgent Nacionalista Party.

Defensor, however, has to resort to a lot of wheeling n’ dealing if he wants to tip the scales in his favor. As early as last June, Mayor Belmonte already announced to ward leaders that he is supporting the candidacy of Vice Mayor Bautista as mayor and that of his daughter Joy Alimurung as vice mayor; the other wannabes did also, not long after.

Defensor’s father, incumbent Rep. Matias Defensor of the 3rd district, is said to be frantically conducting backroom negotiations with Mayor Belmonte to woo him away from Bautista.

The carrot allegedly being dangled by Malacañang before Belmonte is the speakership of the House of Representatives (?) which he had held for three months in 2001, prior to being elected mayor of Quezon City.

Belmonte, who is barred by law from seeking reelection, is supposedly going to run again for Congress in his home district as Rep. Daza is also a last-termer. Which is why there is utterly no move by city hall to relocate that humongous squatter colony located along E. Rodriguez beside a big creek which is home to several thousand voters, despite a recent Malacañang directive mandating the eviction of informal settlers living along riverbanks and similar areas for obvious reasons.

In Manila, politics also took center stage as Mayor Alfredo Lim the other week confirmed to supporters he is definitely going for a second term with incumbent Vice Mayor Francisco Domagoso aka Isko Moreno as his running mate.

Ranged against Lim, who is turning 79 in December, are former Philippine National Police Chief Sonny Razon, a protégé of former President Ramos, Secretary Lito Atienza of the DENR and the usual coterie of saling pusas.

Razon, whose bid is reportedly being financed by (well whaddayaknow) former Atienza crony Chinese businessman Kim Wong, resigned last month from his position as presidential adviser on the peace process in order to concentrate on his candidacy.

On the other hand, Secretary Atienza, who sat as Manila mayor from 1998-2007, is waiting until Nov. 30, the last day for filing of certificate of candidacy with the Commission on Elections, before relinquishing his post in the Arroyo Cabinet.

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