Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca: payback time?

NP & VILLAR, MISREADING SENTIMENTS OF OCAMPO AND MAZA: With due respect to the Nacionalista Party (NP) of presidentiable Sen. Manny Villar, I don’t think that the abrogation of its alliance with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan of former President Marcos will now entice militants Rep. Satur Ocampo and Rep. Liza Maza to run for the Senate under the NP banner.

Villar and the NP are ignominiously (or, if I maybe allowed to use this word, “ignoramously”) misreading the sentiments of Ocampo and Maza on the matter: these two are not just seeking the break-up of the alliance between the NP and the KBL.

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NP, VILLAR MUST CHOOSE ONLY ONE SIDE: What they do not want, in reality, is for Bongbong to be included in the NP ticket where they will also run, and the NP’s announcement, made through former Cavite Rep. Gilbert Remulla, that Bongbong will remain a guest candidate of the NP (and which, therefore, would still make him running side by side with Ocampo and Maza) will still keep the two away from the NP slate.

In the end, Villar and the NP must choose only one side to include in their senatorial line-up: either the side of Ocampo and Maza, or the side of Marcos. Surely, Villar and the NP cannot have their cake and eat it, too.

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COMELEC DECISION IN PADACA CASE HURTS: The Commission on Elections’s decision to oust Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca on the ground that she actually lost to rival Benjamin Dy in the May 2007 elections should be very painful to her, especially because it made her appear as having cheated her way to victory.

Surely, not very many people, particularly Isabela voters, will believe that she could have committed fraud in securing her second three-year term as governor of the province which was under the political grip of the Dy Family for more than 30 years before she defeated them in 2004.

The prevailing belief is that, rightly or wrongly, if there is anyone who will commit electoral fraud in Isabela to ensure victory for themselves, it is going to be from those who have been known to be committing fraud every election season. Not Grace, or so the people thought.

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GRACE PADACA: PAYBACK TIME? But, there is something in this circumstance that many party members of Raul Roco’s Aksiyon Demokratiko will consider a spanking of some sorts for the fragile lady governor who, lest it be forgotten now, actually ran for the governorship of the province for the first time as an Aksiyon candidate.

Many Aksiyon stalwarts could not believe their eyes and were greatly taken aback when, virtually just hours after Grace was proclaimed governor in 2004, she transferred to another party which did not even want to publicly support her candidacy then.

These Aksiyon leaders believed then that Grace’s leaving Aksiyon was the height of ingratitude considering that her governorship in 2004 was sealed and firmed up all the more because Raul Roco, in publicly conceding the presidency to re-electionist Gloria Arroyo for the 2004 presidential derby, made it a precondition that Grace’s looming victory at that time should be respected and not tampered with anymore.

I should know, because I was a senatorial candidate of Aksiyon at that time.

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WHY GO TO CHURCH? Floren Naguit, a past president of the Rotary Club of Intramuros, District 3810, sent the following item on the need for going to Church among believers: “Kaka, I rcvd this email which i am sharing to u: Why Go to Church? If you're spiritually alive, you're going to love this!

“If you're spiritually dead, you won't want to read it. If you're spiritually curious, there is still hope! A churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.

“ 'I've gone for 30 years now,' he wrote, 'and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.'

“This started a real controversy in the 'Letters to the Editor' column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: 'I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals.

“But, for the life o f me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today.

“Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!' When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

“All right, now that you're done reading, send it on! I think everyone should read this! When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, 'Jesus, could you get that for me?'

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