The other day Sonny Osmeña announced, although with little audience and space in the newspaper, that he will be running for mayor of Toledo City in 2013. His runningmate is his minion Jun Yapha.
Sonny running for mayor of Toledo City has done little to excite my curiosity. Sonny’s moves lack the political luster that characterized his moves when he was younger. It seems that his advanced age is getting the best of his tricks. Cong. Pabling Garcia dismisses it accurately as “paukyab”. Kung sa amo pa mga toyab char-char lang.
What baffled me is the move of Jun Yapha to run as vice mayor of Toledo City. Well, in fairness to this ever obedient minion, he’s just following orders from his boss. But setting obedience aside, what, in the farthest stretch of imagination, can Yapha offer to the people of Toledo City? What development in Pinamungajan can he brag about that would convince the people of Toledo that he is worthy of their votes? If he thinks that the people of a progressive city will follow an ineffective leader who has forsaken his own town, then he must be out of his mind. One has just to peek at Pinamungajan to know the answer. And it’s nothing!
A reliable source told this writer that half of the barangay captains of Pinamungajan were publicly denied of their tables during the barangay night just because they are associated with the local opposition leader Glenn Baricuatro. Aside from nothing, is this the brand of politics Yapha will offer to the people of Toledo City? The people of Toledo have seen how cooperation among leaders has brought concrete results and they’re too smart to replace it with Yapha’s divisive brand of politics.
Even when he was at the height of his political career as a congressman Yapha and even his family has done nothing to alleviate the plight of his own people in Pinamungajan. The people of Pinamungajan, although it took them a while, have awakened from the fact that they have been kept pregnant and barefooted. Now they want results. They’re tired of promises. Pinamungajan is no longer Yapha’s bailiwick.
Yapha has no business meddling with the affairs of Toledo City. The duo’s tandem cannot spark panic to the current dispensation of Toledo. With their (s…..) and consummated political careers they’re no longer a force to reckon with. There’s no more space in Toledo for two old men with old … habits.
Rogelio Canillo