Is Sara afraid of Leni?

By Herbert Vego

POOR Sen. “Bato” dela Rosa, he has made a “Kenkoy” out of himself by filing a certificate of candidacy for President of the Philippines.

If today’s generation does not know Kenkoy, he was a comic komiks character of the 1950s whose naivete pushed him into embarrassing situations.

If he is not embarrassed for being mere panakip-butas for President Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, then he must be living up to his “stone” nickname.  He must be patiently waiting for her to substitute for him, even if she had already filed her candidacy for re-election as Davao City mayor.

Substituting for Bato could indeed be the trick, regardless of the rule allowing only a party mate to replace another. Kung may gusot, may lusot, as in the case of Dad Digong who ran for President in 2016 even if the substituted candidate, Martin Dino, had been declared “nuisance candidate” by the Commission on Elections.

Alas, however, what if Sara truly intends to go for re-election because she is not confident of beating opposition presidential bet, Vice-President Leni?

Without her asking for it, Leni has “infected” civic clubs and other multi-sectoral groups to wear “pink” – the color of the ribbon that now resonates her popularity.

Sara’s supposedly vice-presidential partner, Bong Go, is as reluctant. He has another term to complete his Senate term. And so the PDP-Laban party (Cusi wing) must have gone nuts looking for the right substitute.

All right, then, let Bato and Bong run “as is”. Would it work?

Well, if they lose, both would remain senators.

However, they would appear as sacrificial lambs and would expose one of the two other presidential candidates as Duterte’s “planted one”.

Is he Manila Mayor Isko Moreno the “enabler”? He has been very critical of VP Leni.

Or is he former senator Bongbong Marcos?

The last time we saw Bongbong on TV, he looked confused, laughing half-heartedly while revealing that the President had assured him of support by becoming his running mate for vice-president.

Mama mia, only time will tell the truth.

NEW POLITICIAN SHOWS UP IN MIAG-AO

THE first time I heard about former congressman Richard Garin transferring his residence from Guimbal to Miag-ao, Iloilo, I wondered why. There were radio commentators guessing he must be thinking of running for Miag-ao mayor due to the unexpected death of his ally, Vice-Mayor Leonardo Naldoza, who was next in line to run for mayor upon “graduation” of the incumbent mayor, Mac Napulan.

There were also insinuations that the only son of the late Oscar Garin was only a “reserve” in case none of his political allies in Miag-ao would not agree among themselves whom to support.

Having already filed his certificate of candidacy, however, Richard – a good friend of the Iloilo media — is certainly running in Miag-ao. He has a long track record to speak for himself.

Meanwhile, a new guy in town is emerging as the voice of the opposition.  He is Leopoldo “Doods” Moragas Jr., an experienced banker for 20 years. He was senior assistant vice-president of the Philippine National Bank when he retired ahead of retirement age to spend the rest of his life helping his fellow Miag-aowanons.

Guesting on RMN-DYRI’s “Straight to the Point”  yesterday, Doods told program hosts Novie Guazo and Regan Arlos that he was throwing his hat into the political ring to elevate the economic condition of the poor.

“Anhon mo ang infrastructure,” he asked, “kon ang sitwasyon sang pumuluyo amo man gihapon?”

His party, known as Miag-ao Patriots, has a complete slate of Sangguniang Bayan candidates, with Eleanor Nonato as running mate for vice-mayor.

“Miag-aowanons for Miag-ao!” is their battle cry.

Doods is an old – though still young – friend. More on him later.

MORE ON MORE POWER’S AUTOMATIC CIRCUIT RECLOSER

IF on looking out your window you see a branch of your growing tree falling or swaying against an electricity pole or primary line, your best move is to report it to the distribution utility to prevent fire.

As far as MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) in Iloilo City is concerned, however, there’s an automatic circuit recloser (ACR) that takes care of the aforesaid problem by automatically shutting off power.

To explain more about ACR, this corner takes the liberty of quoting excerpts from the article “Stable Electricity for Iloilo: Automatic Circuit Recloser” by blogger Andrea Ortega Guanco:

“MORE Power has devised a way to protect the supply of electricity and quickly restore power in just a few seconds, delivering a stable power connection for the Ilonggos.

“Since its installation, ACR has prevented full electricity downtime in all feeder lines and isolated electrical concerns to a small specific location, unlike before where large areas could still be affected when this technology was not yet introduced. I

“Downtimes in Iloilo City are temporary and are usually caused by animals accidentally coming in contact with the electrical lines, falling tree branches, and even powerful winds. These commonly cause the whole feeder line to short circuit thereby causing a lot of households to lose electricity for hours.

“However, with MORE Power’s latest upgrade, long power outages may just be a thing of the past now as the ACR has demonstrated the benefits of preventing major power supply lines from shutting down. As an example to demonstrate, if there’s a line disturbance in a particular street in Jaro, the power outages will only be isolated there and it won’t affect the whole district or barangay.

“Another key feature of the ACR is that it can self-restore. In other words, the ACR restores power automatically in affected areas even without the intervention of MORE Power’s technical team.

“When a fault in the feeder line is detected, the ACR will ‘open’, thereby causing power interruptions. After 5 seconds, the ACR will close and attempt to restore power.

“If the problem still persists on the third attempt, the recloser will lock out and thus cause a permanent outage.

“As of today, there are 30 ACR units installed all over the system.”

Well said, Andrea. Klaro pa sa sanag sang adlaw.