The fall of the Estrada, Binay and Eusebio dynasties
Credit to Author: RAMON T. TULFO| Date: Wed, 15 May 2019 17:28:29 +0000
IN the 1987 and 1988 elections, all the candidates whose hands were raised by President Cory Aquino won.
That phenomenon was dubbed Cory’s “kili-kili (armpit) power,” probably in reference to her underarms showing whenever she raised the arm of the candidate that she was endorsing.
Now, it’s Digong’s kili-kili power that has made most administration candidates win.
DU30’s pet bills will now pass unhampered in the Senate in the remaining three years of his presidency, with administration senators clearly in the majority.
In the House of Representatives, most of the winners are the administration’s candidates, or those whose hands were raised by President Digong.
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The just concluded midterm elections saw the fall of at least three political dynasties: Estrada, Binay and Eusebio.
My friend and drinking buddy, former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of his old ward, Isko Moreno, in the Manila mayoralty race.
Erap’s granddaughter, 28-year-old Janella Ejercito, lost to Francis Zamora for mayor of San Juan City.
Another dynasty has taken over in the city once dominated by the Estradas (Ejercitos) — the Zamora dynasty.
Reelectionist congressman Ronnie Zamora trounced actor Edu Manzano.
Erap’s two sons, JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada, are hanging by a thread in the senatorial race.
ER Ejercito, Erap’s nephew, likewise suffered a humiliating loss to Ramil Hernandez in the gubernatorial race in Laguna.
In Makati City, former vice president Jojo Binay lost to Romulo “Kid” Peña, in the congressional race for the premier town’s first district.
It’s a sweet victory for Peña, who was defeated by Abby Binay in the 2016 Makati mayoralty race.
Peña had served the remaining term of Junjun Binay as Makati mayor after the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the latter for corruption.
Jojo Binay’s daughter, Nancy, was hanging precariously in 12th place as of Tuesday afternoon, with JV Ejercito following close behind her for the last slot in the “Magic 12.”
The Eusebio family, which has ruled Pasig since 1992, ended its rule with the defeat of Robert Eusebio at the hands of Vico Sotto, the nephew of Senate President Tito Sotto.
The Eusebios, like the Binays of Makati, ruled Pasig for 27 years.
The Eusebio patriarch, Vicente, was succeeded as mayor, one after the other, by wife, Soledad, and then son, Vicente Paulino, and daughter-in-law Maribel and finally, Maribel’s husband Robert.
Pasig City voters must have finally come to their senses when they rejected the Eusebios in the May 13 election.
You see, there were reports, albeit unconfirmed, that the Eusebios were protecting the illegal drug trade in the city.
In 2006, my brother Erwin and I tipped off the Philippine National Police about the existence of a shabu tiangge (flea market) on a one-hectare lot where crystal meth was being sold openly.
The tiangge was a mere spitting distance from the Pasig City Hall. It was impossible for Vicente Eusebio, who was mayor at the time, not to have known about the shabu flea market.
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What lessons have we learned from the defeat of the once powerful political clans?
That nothing in this world is permanent.
Everything comes to an end. Birth follows death; death is an inevitable outcome.
What was sweet and palatable before becomes stale and yucky today.
The young, vibrant and popular today will become a has-been tomorrow.
The Estradas, Binays and Eusebios know that only too well now.
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Joseph Cua, who’s in the list of the Philippine Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as a drug trafficker and even manufacturer of crystal meth (shabu in street lingo), won the gubernatorial race in Catanduanes.
The island province in Bicol is notorious for being the source of the shabu that finds its way to Luzon and the Visayas.
Reelectionist Cua has been given a new mandate by the Catanduanes electorate despite his being tagged as a narcopolitician.
Oh well, the power of money.
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I was never motivated by politics when I exposed Mark Red Mariñas as one of the alleged leaders of the human trafficking syndicate when he was still an assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration.
Mariñas lost to reelectionist Jaime Fresnedi in the mayoralty contest in Muntinlupa City.
I don’t know Fresnedi from Adam. I’ve never seen or talked to him.
It just so happened that a disgruntled immigration officer, whom I call Deep Throat, exposed the syndicate at a time when Mariñas was running for mayor of Muntinlupa.
I was told that Mariñas was leading in the early pre-election surveys, but the Muntinlupa electorate dropped him like a hot potato after the exposé.
Somebody asked me if I felt sorry that Mariñas had lost because of my exposé.
No, and why should I be? It’s my duty as a journalist to expose the truth.
If I didn’t regret criticizing my own brother Ben in the P60-million tourism advertising scam, why should I be remorseful about exposing the shenanigans of a complete stranger?
Other journalists and newspapers have not followed up on my exposé on the syndicate when it’s a real issue.
I am told that certain reporters, editors and columnists are on the payroll of the human trafficking syndicate, which was earning P50 million a day before my exposé.
I’m just thinking aloud.
Bato-bato sa langit…
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