Pairing with Bing

There’s a lot of pairing with Mayor Evelio Leoanardia for a line-up in the next year’s election. In the past, this would be premature but because we are going to have an automated election, the filing of certificates of candidacy will be this October, seven months before the election.

We are now bombarded with names of who is running for what and with whom. The most interesting development so far is the pairing with Bing Leonardia who is expected to run for Congress against the incumbent Anthony Golez. Ironically they were partners in the last elections.

Bing is barred by law from running for mayor, so he has his sights on a higher position and that is Congress, thus he challenges Golez.

It is therefore no longer possible for Bing to pair with Golez or Golez with Bing, but the question that has been going the rounds for weeks is who will run with Bing for Mayor and Vice Mayor, and who will run with Golez for Mayor and Vice Mayor. Vice Mayor Thaddeus Sayson is Bing’s pick for mayor.

There is a third pairing going the rounds. Who will run with Monico Puentevella who is gunning for mayor? Who will be his partner for congressman and for vice mayor?

There are two dominant political groups in Bácolod at least in the last election. One group, known as Grupo Progreso had Golez for congressman, Bing for mayor and Thaddeus Sayson for vice mayor. The group won plus a majority of the Sanggunian.

 The other group is that of Puentevella known as Monopal, the acronym for Monico, Renecito Novero and Anne Marie Palermo. The three lost - Monico for mayor, Novero for congressman and Palermo for vice mayor. They had, however, a good group in the SP though not a majority, but top vote getters, like El Cid Familiaran, Archie Baribar and Sonia Verdeflor.

Grupo Progreso remains intact except for Golez, who began to take a different stance since last year and got alienated from the Grupo. He is no longer acceptable in the slate that is being formulated by the group. Aside from him, Grupo Progreso is united except for a few days of indication of disagreements when Novero’s people sent out news that Novero would be taken in by the group as its vice mayoralty candidate, in effect, infiltrating the group and sowing seeds of disunity.

Nevertheless, the perception of disunity was squelched as fast as it came out, when Bing and Thaddeus said that no agreement had been entered into between Novero and Bing or Thaddeus and that the supposed, or broadcast tandem with an acronym “Bing-Mo-No” has no basis but mere “pairing,” a whistle in the wind.

Failing that, the media handlers and operators identified with the camp of Puentevella and Novero came out with another flight of fancy (palupad in Hiligaynon) – LPG which stands for Leonardia,  Puentevella and Gonzales.

Vladimir Gonzales is believed to be the tandem of Puentevella for mayor and Gonzales for vice mayor. LPG came out as another joke but it projected the image that the people considered to the propaganda spinner under the pay of Puentevella are trying to pair Bing with at least Puentevella to the exclusion of Novero. Some think that LPG came out of the tank of Gonzales and Puentevella.

This recent pairing tells an interesting story. The people of Novero and or Puentevella are trying to hitch on Bing and therefore we can suspect that, in their assessment, Bing is the strongest candidate and that by latching their wagons with Bing, they can ride into the Bacolod Government Center.

Well, at least, for Novero, because Puentevella pledged he would never hold office in the BGC, a promise that is being fulfilled because his first try was a failure and probably his second as well, because the Mayor of Bacolod holds office at the BGC. The heavens, I think, do not want him to break his pledge.

The pairing being sent out from the opposition camp is with Bing. Nothing so far with Golez, which indicates that, from the point of view of those outside Grupo Progreso, Bing is the strongest contender to represent Bácolod in Congress. Golez is simply being ignored.

These developments were unfolding while Golez is abroad but communication is not a problem so that, if there is pairing at all, his lieutenants here can also spin. I think one of his problems is that, aside from his disengagement from his wife, Princess Soraya, who handled his campaign in 2010 remarkably, another of Golez top campaign strategists had left his camp.

Unintentionally perhaps, Puentevella and Novero camps are helping create a perception of Bing and his group’s political strength. Who takes a train ride to perdition?

It will be interesting to know who Golez will pair with.*

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