Mr. Bean gives King Kong a beating
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August 23, 2004
ZALDY Ocon started as one hell of a big joke in the city council. He admits he doesn't know anything about the Robert's Rules of Order--the reason why points of order often interrupt him whenever he is in the middle of a discourse at the session hall.
As a media practitioner, he is not exactly a broadcaster par excellence. Many of his media colleagues despise him for his brand of broadcast journalism. But make no mistake about it--Ocon is revered by many DxCC listeners, the very people who made him Cagayan de Oro's 12th councilor.
He was and still is a big joke, alright. But this joke of a councilor cum broadcaster, "Mr. Bean" or "Kagawad Pandesal" is starting to stir the hornet's nest.
For the first time since Dongkoy Emano evolved into a political balite or like the Babaing Tuod in Mars Ravelo's Darna series, a small-time councilor is rocking the seasoned politician's boat and is making his kitchen very, very hot.
Any politician of Emano's stature would feel insulted. It's not a King Kong-vs.-Godzilla scenario. Rather, it's King Kong vs. Mr. Bean
Unfortunately for Dongkoy but fortunately for Zaldy, it looks like Mr. Bean now has the upper hand and is promising a big upset. Mr. Bean is clobbering King Kong in one corner with a combination of powerful jabs, right hooks, left hooks, right uppercuts and left uppercuts. Unless Emano gets a political tune-up now, he'd likely end up kissing the canvass the way the sociopathic and once unbeatable "Iron" Mike Tyson did when he faced Danny Williams in the ring last month.
What Zaldy Ocon is doing to the Cagayan de Oro mayor now is something the Fidel Ramos-backed Tito and Ruthie Guingona wished but failed to do in their 1995-1998 attempt to win Misamis Oriental.
Perhaps due to his politcal savvy or for some other reason, Emano never had a problem in warding off corruption issues... until "Mr. Bean" entered the picture and won an election last May.
Now, the alleged P100-million loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is haunting the Emano administration. The issue stuck--so wide and so deep--onto Emano like the label of his favorite imported cigarette.
In July, Emano told listeners of DxIF-Bombo Radyo he would immediately resign if Ocon proved that city hall secured a P100-million loan from DBP under his watch. But last Saturday, Emano found himself singing to a different tune. This was after Ocon recorded and replayed his interview with registrar Buenaventura Udang who confirmed that city hall mortgaged 27 lots to DBP for P100 million. The 1999 city hall-DBP transaction was documented and Udang is keeping the records right in his office.
Now, Emano is admitting that he borrowed money from DBP on behalf of city hall. But he is claiming that he only borrowed P53 million, not P100 million, in addition to an alleged P47-million loan of the Magtajas administration.
Ah, okay. Fifty-three-f@#$%^g-million pesos! Still a lot of money.
Now we're getting somewhere.
What's bugging a lot of people is why Emano tried to mislead people into believing that there was no loan only to admit later--after Udang's disclosure--that he borrowed P53 million. That it's "only (?)" P53 million doesn't make it less of a loan. Whether it's one peso, one hundred, one thousand, one million or one billion, Emano needs to give a clear accounting--unless, of course, if it's his personal money.
We are seeing a mouse giving an elephant the creeps. It doesn't take a political genius to frighten Emano after all.
Huli ka. Si Ocon lang pala ang katapat mo.
Now, would you be so kind as to explain how the money was spent, Mr. Mayor?
Pastilan.
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