After nearly 20 years in politics, Congressman Dong Gonzales of Pampanga’s Third District can claim a remarkable, even enviable, bragging right others can only dream of or imagine. He’s obviously now the second most powerful leader in the House of Representatives by virtue of his being chosen as the senior deputy speaker.
In the language of the ancient Romans and Greeks, it means deification. In politics, we can only guess the perks and privileges that come with the turf. Power, immense power, goes with the title. Politics,whether national or local, is about power.
Dong is fully aware of the outstanding feat and, at times, it’s inescapable that he’s tempted to compare himself with the political achievement of his former benefactor and idol, the late Pampanga Gov. Bren Z. Guiao after whom he named a son who has won as the first councilor in the City of San Fernando.
The late governor wanted to regain his political stature in the province after he was trounced by the popular movie actor now senator Lito Lapid nearly into oblivion. Guiao wanted to regain his stature by running for congressman in the first district. But death overtook him.
You can’t argue against success and Dong can safely point to a political niche that has undoubtedly surpassed that of the former governor. Of course, he always gives the credit to the governor’s great influence his life. He learned a lot from the master, he would say. And some say that he resembles the late governor in his political ways more than the real son, PBA coach Yeng Guiao, former vice governor and congressman of the First District does. It is osmosis more than genetics.
Luck still has a long way to go with Dong yet. As the late President Fidel Ramos would say, the best is yet to come. The administration of President Bongbong Marcos still has five years more before the next president is chosen. And one week is a long time in politics. Casting a moist eye in that direction is no less than House speaker Martin Romualdez. Success begets success and Dong hopes on a larger scale.
“Politics is not a game,” Winston Churchill said “ but an earnest
business” Dong is just as serious about it. Next year, he is expected to field his daughter, now a provincial board member, to replace him in Congress. His third term ends next year, and he wants to leave the district in her daughter’s hand, the better for him pursue whatever other plans he had for the district. It’s likely that she will work for the conversion of Mexico town into a city.
There are talks that Brenz, his councilor son, may also look at the possibility of a higher position as vice mayor of the city. In any case, Dong wants to create a better future for his children politically. Apart from experience and wherewithal, Dong understands the meaning of timing. He has learned from past mistakes.
In the changing fortunes of politics, Dong has his shares of political blunders. Dong has the coagulation of business and politics in his blood that makes him a risk taker. He once lost his congressional seat to a former congressman because he moved to another party. His decision reportedly earned the ire of a former president that caused his downfall.
For once, he learned humility from that costly fall and sought to
regain the former president’s trust and good will and mend fences with her by personally seeking her forgiveness and understanding for making that foolish decision.
But has he really learned the lessons of political complications and
the tricky terrain of politics? It’s new question that has a new ring to it, given the political personalities involved. The political intrigue is unavoidable.
In Dong’s rise to his present perch, it came, unfortunately, at the
expense of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He probably wished it didn’t happen, but politics has its unintended consequences, One of these is being alienated from friends and long-time allies. In accepting the post, Dong had only one thing in mind: to be as good, if not better, than those who preceded him.
Until now, Dong continues to mentally process a clever but cynical
aphorism the late Guiao used to say whenever he described some
politician, as if to describe politics itself. “ Lako na medyas,” he would say,”enaka dayo sapatos “. ( He would take out your socks without removing your shoes”)
Dong understood it as a warning against the ever-present opportunism in politics. Dong is mindful that it is a constant caveat in the business. He knows the risk`that comes with the territory, Dong’s mindset now is to be the best senior deputy speaker he can be under the Marcos administration. He feels he owes to his colleagues who entrusted him the post. They chose him,he said, and it is his job to honor that trust in the interest of public service.
After his Congress term, he wants to help his daughter and son to
develop themselves as worthy public servant he can be proud of,
transferring ,as it were, the values of public service that he learned from the late governor.
He may leave politics for while and be of help in anyway to the success of the current administration. Obviously, being a part of the speaker’s plan in 2028 is integral to that. Like it or not, that puts him at the front and center of the political conversation of Philippine politics in the next five years and beyond.
Being deified , even in politics, is a big deal.
