YOU MAY have had a landslide in the gubernatorial contest in Pampanga, but in Tarlac it was more devastating, no less than a tsunami of votes.
It was my good Tarlacqueno friend, Erning bloviating the election results for the governorship of Tarlac.
Yes, re-electionist Gov. Victor Areno Yap of the Nationalist People’s Coalition drowning his challenger, Vice Gov. Marcelino Aganon, Jr. of Lakas-CMD-Kampi in a tidal wave of 396,069 votes.
All Aganon could muster were 81,695 votes, a difference of 314,374. Really, no less than a tsunami hitting Aganon there. The over 80 percent of the vote Yap garnered indeed entering the records in any gubernatorial race in the whole Philippines.
Minus the hype attendant to Yap’s spectacular win, the election results – Erning said, over coffee at Michelle’s SM City Clark – were really expected.
Such massive a margin expected? What I got from Tarlac during the campaign was that Yap was at the losing end. The death of his father Aping at the hustings, so it was said, stamped finis to his re-election bid.
You fell for the propaganda ploy of his rivals.
You mean to tell me, Aping, until then a living legend in Tarlac politics, had no relevance to his son’s victory?
Of course not. Aping was Aping. No other Yap in Tarlac could have prospered politically without the power base the patriarch built through the years.
Yes, I remember my compadre Max Sangil discussing Tarlac politics with me recently, of the triumvirs Ninoy Aquino, Peping Cojuangco and Aping Yap on one side, and Danding Cojuangco on the other, starting in the ‘50s yet.
Those were the “golden years” of Tarlac politics, lost irretrievably with the declaration of martial law, the incarceration of Ninoy and the ascendancy of Danding. The EDSA 1 Revolution resurrected the political fortunes of Aping who regained the congressional seat he first won in 1965 and held it for three consecutive terms ending in 1998 when he ran for governor against Peping’s wife herself, re-electionist Gov. Margarita “Ting Ting” Cojuangco.
A realignment of alliances obtained then with Aping going to Danding’s side, and winning against Tingting.
The Aping-Peping rivalry reached yet another apex in 2007 when the former fielded his son Vic against the latter, even as he ran again for Congress. Both Yaps won, practically dimming the political star of Peping in Tarlac.
It was not all smooth run for the young Yap though. In 1998, Vic had his first foray in politics, running for the 2nd congressional district and losing to also-first-timer Noynoy Aquino. Tarlac folk said Yap’s loss was due to the house-to-house campaign the sainted Cory conducted for her son.
Now, Erning says, the young Yap – in only his first term in office – already carved a name for himself in local politics.
“His is a politics of development, with enough of the old-time flesh-pressing, back-patting outreach to the barangays. Vic Yap is on first name basis with all the barangay captains of Tarlac,” Erning swears. “And then there are his programs and projects, notably in health, education and livelihood, which benefits really stream down to the lowest strata of Tarlac society. How could he not win by an enormous margin?”
The sports complex that Yap built that made possible the hosting of the Palarong Pambansa this year is one project strongly impacting in the people of Tarlac some greatness of their governor.
“Vic Yap has come out of the shadow of his old man, and has taken his own place in the sun,” Erning says.
Yeah, I am convinced.
And then there’s more. Max told our SM City coffee bunch of a dinner he had with Yap at Zen in Clark.
When the election results cropped up in the conversation, of the 81,000-plus who voted for his rival, Yap told Max he would look for every one of those voters. To befriend them.
Yeah, expect another Yap-stirred tsunami in 2013.
It was my good Tarlacqueno friend, Erning bloviating the election results for the governorship of Tarlac.
Yes, re-electionist Gov. Victor Areno Yap of the Nationalist People’s Coalition drowning his challenger, Vice Gov. Marcelino Aganon, Jr. of Lakas-CMD-Kampi in a tidal wave of 396,069 votes.
All Aganon could muster were 81,695 votes, a difference of 314,374. Really, no less than a tsunami hitting Aganon there. The over 80 percent of the vote Yap garnered indeed entering the records in any gubernatorial race in the whole Philippines.
Minus the hype attendant to Yap’s spectacular win, the election results – Erning said, over coffee at Michelle’s SM City Clark – were really expected.
Such massive a margin expected? What I got from Tarlac during the campaign was that Yap was at the losing end. The death of his father Aping at the hustings, so it was said, stamped finis to his re-election bid.
You fell for the propaganda ploy of his rivals.
You mean to tell me, Aping, until then a living legend in Tarlac politics, had no relevance to his son’s victory?
Of course not. Aping was Aping. No other Yap in Tarlac could have prospered politically without the power base the patriarch built through the years.
Yes, I remember my compadre Max Sangil discussing Tarlac politics with me recently, of the triumvirs Ninoy Aquino, Peping Cojuangco and Aping Yap on one side, and Danding Cojuangco on the other, starting in the ‘50s yet.
Those were the “golden years” of Tarlac politics, lost irretrievably with the declaration of martial law, the incarceration of Ninoy and the ascendancy of Danding. The EDSA 1 Revolution resurrected the political fortunes of Aping who regained the congressional seat he first won in 1965 and held it for three consecutive terms ending in 1998 when he ran for governor against Peping’s wife herself, re-electionist Gov. Margarita “Ting Ting” Cojuangco.
A realignment of alliances obtained then with Aping going to Danding’s side, and winning against Tingting.
The Aping-Peping rivalry reached yet another apex in 2007 when the former fielded his son Vic against the latter, even as he ran again for Congress. Both Yaps won, practically dimming the political star of Peping in Tarlac.
It was not all smooth run for the young Yap though. In 1998, Vic had his first foray in politics, running for the 2nd congressional district and losing to also-first-timer Noynoy Aquino. Tarlac folk said Yap’s loss was due to the house-to-house campaign the sainted Cory conducted for her son.
Now, Erning says, the young Yap – in only his first term in office – already carved a name for himself in local politics.
“His is a politics of development, with enough of the old-time flesh-pressing, back-patting outreach to the barangays. Vic Yap is on first name basis with all the barangay captains of Tarlac,” Erning swears. “And then there are his programs and projects, notably in health, education and livelihood, which benefits really stream down to the lowest strata of Tarlac society. How could he not win by an enormous margin?”
The sports complex that Yap built that made possible the hosting of the Palarong Pambansa this year is one project strongly impacting in the people of Tarlac some greatness of their governor.
“Vic Yap has come out of the shadow of his old man, and has taken his own place in the sun,” Erning says.
Yeah, I am convinced.
And then there’s more. Max told our SM City coffee bunch of a dinner he had with Yap at Zen in Clark.
When the election results cropped up in the conversation, of the 81,000-plus who voted for his rival, Yap told Max he would look for every one of those voters. To befriend them.
Yeah, expect another Yap-stirred tsunami in 2013.
