By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

HIS white hair and small frame notwithstanding, Ruel C. Camba, provincial information officer, was a picture of confidence facing his colleagues in media and acquitting himself well as de facto spokesman-defender of the Agbayanis (at least, Governor Victor and wife Jamie) during last Thursday’s Patrima Kapihan at Masarap grill at Magiclub on Guilig Street.

His long years of service under Victor Agbayani’s wings (and despite controversies he’s found himself in during his early PIO stints) has apparently honed him into the creditable answering machine of the Agbayani administration, next perhaps in wit and coolness to Boy Solis himself, the provincial administrator – and after the par excellence performance of former Provincial Legal Counsel Dindin Baniqued (who’s now Mayor BSL’s legal beagle) when she was still Urduja’s most visible functionary years back).

Like a seasoned politician, Mr. Camba was able to parry the cutting questions of our Patrima colleagues with dispatch and finesse that one mediaman pal of ours had even openly endorsed him to run for governor too.

But kidding aside, it’s true what Ruel said about the absenteeism issue being hurled at the Agbayanis each election time now becoming the stuff of old hat, a rehashed crap. The Agbayanis, the late family patriarch Aguedo and son Victor, have seemingly developed a Teflon-coating insofar as such election season charge against them is concerned. Both have remarkably weathered that criticism with aplomb – and with thousands of votes piled against their opponents at the polls to prove it.

And what about Jamie, the governor’s wife, if she ever runs for the post and wins? The conventional comment is that she might just be more of the same, that is, away from the province and in Manila most of the time.

To that interesting poser, Ruel mustered enough charm (gall) to ask the doubters rhetorically: “We might never know the answer to that – if we don’t try her,” punctuated by his now trademark chin-up grin. We tell you, a little more time and honing and he’ll be in league with the best of Malacanang spokespersons.

* * * *
Taking Vice Governor Oscar Lambino’s words for it, the criteria for chosing administration candidates can be summed up in three words: Winnability, Loyalty and Wherewithal or resources.

As provincial vice-chair of Lakas and three-term vice governor of the province (all under Victor Agbayani), Lambino should be a shoo-in for the governorship among Lakas top decision-makers. On ‘winnability, he’s never lost any of his political fights and even now, he’s leading the pack of contenders in the latest surveys; on “loyalty”, he’s unquestionable as a partyman, sticking it out with Lakas on all issues and in whatever time or clime. As for “wherewithal,” he said in last Thursday’s Patrima Kapihan that he’s definitely not super rich but surely – drawing a distinct example from the last Isabela gubernatorial contest — he’s got more money, he says, than Grace Padaca, the sensational masa-backed reporter-turned governor who ended the reign of the Dys in that agriculture-rich province.

But if that were all the criteria needed to bag a coveted slot in the party in these elections, there could be many candidates with similar matching qualifications making it.

And so, there comes the fourth unsaid criteria in the selection: Right Connect.

That is where everything starts and ends.