Cloud-seeding waters Negros Occidental

For the past few days, cloud-seeding operations in Negros Occidental have induced rain over the drying farmlands. And brought down temperatures. So that by yesterday, provincial agriculturist Igmedio Tabiana said the early onset of rainfall has solved the dry spell.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon ordered a temporary cessation of the aerial seeding of rain clouds to allow festival goers to enjoy the highlights of the Panaad Festival at the Panaad Park and Satisum in Barangay Mansilingan.

With the temperature plummeting, the political heat in Bacolod, however, has gathered more steam.

As a matter of fact, what is funny is that Western Visayans had their eyes turned on Bacolod’s worsening political brawl while the tension appeared to have eased in the case of Iloilo City and the province.

There were some exciting developments in Aklan, but despite an earlier prediction, Antique’s politics has sizzled within civilized limits.

But Bacolod’s political war has worsened during the past week. And as the struggle for local political supremacy reached torrid limits, the danger is that the focus on the senatoriables could ebb. Local politicians could be so engrossed in their survival that they won’t have much time to snatch votes for their senatorial candidates.

That was exactly what I warned of with the administration’s tactics of pitting Lakas and Kampi bets against each other, hoping that somehow that could generate extra advantage for the national ticket. But as I went around the city yesterday, most senatorial bets of Team Unity had to depend on relatives, friends and non-government organizations to push their respective campaigns.

In the rest of Negros Occidental, though, despite his frustrations over unhealed differences among political allies, Gov. Joseph Marañon is confronted with intense – but not destructive – rivalries.

That’s why Marañon said yesterday there is no such thing as "command votes" in the province. This means local governments dictating on people as to who to vote for.

Although he is campaigning for Team Unity, Marañon stressed that "we are just appealing to voters to vote for our candidates, not commanding them to follow our will."

Marañon is virtually running opposed with his running mate, Vice Gov. Isidro Zayco. Both have already gone around the province to campaign for their local allies as well as for the Team Unity ticket.

Leonardia vs Puentevella

The funny thing in the case of Bacolod politics is that the ones engaged in banging each other are Rep. Monico Puentevella and City Mayor Evelio Leonardia.

Actually, Leonardia is being challenged by former mayor Luzviminda Valdez, while Puentevella’s contender is Vice Mayor Renecito Novero.

But the word war between the two camps — the Performance and Progress teams — has more or less been concentrated between the barkers of Leonardia and Puentevella.

Ironically, Puentevella and Leonardia were allies in the last elections. But there had been a falling out between them until both sides appeared to have become mortal enemies, with Puentevella contending that Leonardia, through city legal officer Allan Zamora, has descended on running after his sons, three of whom operated the Happy Bingo, which Zamora recently closed down for lack of a mayor’s permit.

Black propaganda

Police yesterday filed a charge for illegal possession of bladed weapon against Clyde Villarete before the Bacolod prosecutor’s office.

This was the last of the row between the Leonardia and Puentevella camps.

Villarete, 29, and a 14-year-old boy were endorsed by Francisco Hecita Jr. to Police Precinct 1 after he caught them distributing black propaganda materials along Gonzaga and Locsin streets Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday morning, Puentevella reported to local mediamen that he had his campaign group go to Precinct 1 that morning to investigate the circumstances behind Villarete’s arrest.

He presented a videotaped interview with the police investigator, who claimed that he saw the bladed weapon shortly after he had consulted with the Comelec officials who informed him that there was no reason to detain the duo for violation of Comelec rules.

But he later had Villarete detained when he saw a balisong among the black propaganda materials.

Another mystery, according to Puentevella, was that the second batch of black prop materials was different from those originally bundled ones taken from Villarete.

Meanwhile, Zamora yesterday shrugged off as a normal standard operating procedure that order by the Ombudsman Visayas for the Commission on Audit to conduct a special audit on the city government.

This was after retired police officer Victor Eduardo and Sancho Nagar Sr., a former executive assistant of former mayors Oscar Verdeflor and Joy Valdez, filed administrative charges against city officials for the release of P59 million to Hilmarc Corp.

The contractor won the bid to construct the P396-million Bacolod Government Center. Work has been ongoing on the project, although the initial payments came from the city coffers. The reason: the Land Bank of the Philippines has been barred from releasing a P400-million loan to the city government.

Treñas way ahead of challenger

In Iloilo City, surveys conducted by two radio stations and a survey firm composed of UP-Visayas professors showed that re-electionist Mayor Jerry Treñas was way ahead of his challenger, Joshua Alim, a lawyer and former city councilor.

In short, one does not actually need to study the survey results. The visitor immediately gets the unexciting ambience in Iloilo where there is hardly much talk about politics.

It’s simply because the public perception is that Treñas and company have virtually no challengers.

The same is in the case of Rep. Raul Gonzalez Jr., re-electionist son of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, whose two opponents – former mayor Manueto Malabor and lawyer Benji Gencos of the Liberal Party – are virtually engaged in a "nolo contendere" fight against the incumbent lawmaker.

In the first district, however, former Miag-ao mayor Gerry Flores is engaged in a fierce contest to unseat Rep. J. Garin. Flores, a former chief of the PNP, earlier lost when he first took on Coconut Secretary Oscar Garin, Javier’s father.

In the provincial race, Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas is virtually conceded as the winner. The only enigma is Rep. Rex Suplico who is running as an independent candidate for vice governor.

The more interesting development is in Antique province where the situation is reaching a boiling point with the entry of retired PNP Gen. Robert Delfin who has teamed up with re-electionist Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez to take on Rep. Exequiel Javier. Delfin was last reported to be garnering a lot of support from professionals and the youth.