BOY DELEVERIO
Mindanao Monitor
From a highly reliable source, it is now certain that Governor Auring Cerilles is aiming her sights at the Office of the City Mayor of Pagadian City come 2010 elections. She was already setting her plans as far back as the last quarter of 2007, when she prevailed upon Her Excellency, President Floria Macapagal Arroyo to effect a determined and last-ditch effort to realize Pagadian City's role as Region Nine's regional center.
Certain sectors claim that the determination of Malacañang to effect the tranfer of the regional offices to Pagadian City, as provided by law, is due to a prior understanding that eventually Governor Cerilles will become its city mayor in due time.
How will the Cerilleses do it? Of course, they have to get rid of Congressman Victor Yu who had been their "political puppet" and convince Mayor Sammy Co to run for Congress in 2010. This is necessary, so that Governor Cerilles will capture the city mayorship in a silver platter, considering that only Mayor Co's re-election bid can stop her from spoiling her aspirations towards tht end.
I have it on good authority that Congressman Victor Yu needed no outside force to dislodge him from the graces of the Cerilleses. As far he is personally concerned, he is already prepared to rise in revolt and seek his right place in the political arena. Congressman Yu, by force of necessity, had to get rid of being a "Cerilles puppet." It is now a quetion of whether or not he will tangle with Mayor Co for the first district congressional seat, or give way to his fellow Filipino-Chinese. If we ask a member of the Yu family, the naswer would certainly be an angry thumbs down for the Cerilleses, right now.
For his part, Mayor Sammy Co would run for Congress only if Congressman Yu will give way. And the only way for that to materialize is for Victor Yu to run for vice governor of whomsoever the Pwersa Mindanao will field as gubernatorial bet in 2010. Let us, therefore, expect the following possible tndem in the gubernatorial race: Cerilles-Saniel versus Real-Yu or Cerilles-Regala versus Poloyapoy-Yu. If Congressman Yu will run for re-election, the most likely vice gubernatorial bet of the Pwersa Mindanao would be Mayor Domingo Mirrar of Lakewood. Then Auring will have second thoughts running for city mayor and Sammy Co will have to face the reality of facing Governor Cerilles in the fight for city mayorship.
Meanwhile, to politician to watch is former Congresswoman Nenet San Juan. The voters of the second congressional district of Zamboanga del Sur have realized lately their big loss when they chose to reject her re-electiom bid and prefer to barter her with hundreds of pesos handed to them by the you-know-who politician who cannot win elections without buying votes or cheating.