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Batas Mauricio

A POLITICAL feud worth watching to find out how it will be resolved (if ever it will still be resolved!) is the conflict between father and son, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and Mark Cojuangco, pertaining to their differing choices on who to support for president in the May 2016 elections.

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While the father, who is the founder of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) and the acknowledged political kingpin in Tarlac, staunchly supports the candidacy of independent Sen. Grace Poe, the son, who is now making a political niche in Pangasinan where he is running for governor in May, is vehemently supporting Vice President Jejomar Binay.

This is not just a difference in political taste among relatives, if you ask me. It has all the makings of a dangerous political and family split which may yet irretrievably divide the NPC, or cause its permanent dissolution and eventual demise, in much the same that past political differences have divided the Cojuangcos for so long.

Even now, some known close allies of the father across the political landscape are siding with the choice of the son, and even though these allies continue to profess loyalty to the NPC, it may not be long before they finally join Binay’s party, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

Of course, the Cojuangcos of Tarlac have been famous since the 1960s (or even earlier, in the 1950s) for supporting opposing candidates. I know this, not only because I am from the first district town of Tarlac, Ramos, but more because my father, Melanio P. Mauricio Sr., was somehow a participant in one of these splits as a result of his being a municipal councilor of the town for quite some time.

At that time, my father was on the side of former Tarlac Rep. Jose Cojuangco Jr., or popularly known as Peping, the brother of Cory, the wife of then Governor (and later Senator) Benigno Ninoy Aquino Jr. Peping and Ninoy were both with the Liberal Party of then re-electionist President Diosdado Macapagal.

Eduardo Jr., or Danding, was with the Nacionalista Party at that time, with then presidential aspirant Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. Danding, the son of Eduardo Sr., brother of Peping’s father, Jose, was running against Peping, then the incumbent Tarlac first district congressman. That fight, fought bitterly, went to Peping. But Danding later benefitted immensely from his association with Marcos.

Years later, the same bitter political split manifested once more in the presidential contest of 2010, where cousins Benigno Noynoy Aquino III and Gilbert Cojuangco Teodoro Jr. (son of Mercedes, sister of Danding, and wife of Marcos Social Security System President Gilberto Teodoro Sr.) were pitted against each other as candidates of the Liberal Party (for Noynoy) and the Lakas CMD (for Gilbert).

This divisive political wrangling, I believe, will continue to hound the Cojuangcos in the future, and proof of this now is the reported or apparent split between Danding and his son Mark over Grace Poe and Jojo Binay. But come to think of it, there is some benefit in these differing political affiliations for the Cojuangcos–their family wins, no matter who gets elected.

Who, really, is guilty of betraying the so-called ideals of the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, particularly that of uplifting the lives of the Filipino people through the elimination of graft and corruption, criminality, and other evils of Philippine-style family-dynasty and pork-barrel driven politics?

If listeners of our radio program are to be asked, the answer is a resounding, “the two Aquino presidents were the ones who betrayed” Edsa and whatever it was projected to represent for the last 30 years. One hundred percent of those who responded to our question claimed that if there were people who were to be considered as having turned traitors to the aspirations of the Filipinos who dared to lay down their lives on the line in 1986, unmindful of the possibility that they could be killed by enemy forces at that time, it should be President Cory Aquino and her son, President Noynoy Aquino.

Our listeners presented many arguments in support of their accusations against the Aquinos, but the overriding view was that both Cory and Noynoy not only turned their backs on their promises to fight off graft and corruption; under their terms, corruption even thrived and reached peak levels unheard of during the 20-year reign of Ferdinand Marcos, particularly among relatives and close political and business associates of the Aquinos.

The examples of big media companies, utility corporations, and other highly profitable firms that became government-owned and controlled corporations under Marcos but which were simply returned to their former owners or to newly-favored allies of the Aquinos were cited by our listeners.

So, will someone please explain why, despite pronouncements of the Palace days before the 30th Edsa anniversary celebration that there would be no politics in this year’s commemoration of the event, President Aquino openly used the occasion to campaign against and disparage the vice presidential run of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.?

Will somebody please also clarify why administration candidates Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo were there at the stage, evidently so they could campaign, by their mere presence, during the celebrations? I am sure only President Aquino could have allowed them to be there.

Now, tell me: who betrayed Edsa’s ideals of truth and justice and fairness more–Noynoy who campaigned against Marcos, and allowed the celebrations to highlight the presence of his candidates, Mar and Leni, or their political adversaries whose only fault it seems is their family lineage?

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com

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