By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

THERE was this wag of an announcer who blared one early morning last week while I was still rubbing the sleep off my eyes that the Agbayanis – Jamie for governor and Victor for congressman of the second district – are fast losing support now that the Spines (Rep. Amado Tutaan Espino) has stepped up his campaign and, according to him, gaining much ground.

I do not know about that.

I do know that the last time I heard a similar refrain (well, well, and from the same announcer too, I believe) about Victor supposedly getting jittery because his then opponent, former Ambassador and Senator Leticia R. Shahani was way up in the surveys, the Agbayani certified seed clobbered the opponent by such a wide margin you cannot even see a waving hand because of the “distance” (in Pangasinan, that’s ag nakaweyan, see?)

There is something about these so-called pundits and propaganda boys that makes them see fantasy as reality. Psychological aberration, methinks.

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And, as for the Joe-Benjie set-to in the fourth district, the result of which the HeHe Alvarez, in all solemnity, swears has a direct effect on the nation, or something to that effect, it’s really one helluva fight going on out there.

Springing off from a seemingly anemic start, Mayor Benjie Lim and son, Brian, are taking to the hustings like they have found extra adrenaline (from where or, from whom, we can only make educated guesses) and would give the fight all they got. Just look how all those eye-catching posters of the father and son have suddenly sprouted all over and now smile side by side with those of Cuya Joe and ex-mayor Al on concrete fences, abandoned shops and buildings, electric posts and sari-sari stores.

If that’s a sign of panic as JDV’s boys would want to describe the mode over at BSL’s fort – I mean, giving the rival a run for his posters and his roving public address jingle vehicle, not to mention the tried and tested “persuasive measures per voter” – I don’t know what spirited fight is.
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Of course, like any politically conscious Dagupeno will tell you, these physical campaign activities are just half of the story. The more interesting maneuvers – and these are usually behind-the-scenes, not meant for the eyes of the ordinary voter, you and me — are the tacit alliance-building by either side as the campaign nears its end.

The quid pro quo, the horse-trading, the secret pacts, especially between and among the Big Players and Power Groups in the national scene as these bear down on the local polls will be there to influence, if not altogether alter, the final results of the provincial battles royale, like that in the fourth district.

The conventional wisdom, of course, says JDV will prevail. The defending champion always has a decided edge. He will win, not as comfortably as he did in his past outings when only token opposition did battle with him perhaps, but he will win.

Even BSL, the cool Jaycee tactician and calculating Magic Group of Companies patriarch that he is, knows his chances of upending the “system” stands only at 60-40, the lower figure being his chance.

As though to give a hint he’s not really overly ecstatic about making political David history in this rumble against a political Goliath, Benjie had intimated to us some weeks back that even if he loses this one, he loses nothing but “a few pesos and a few pounds,” to borrow a phrase from our late fellow writer, Armando Ravanzo. If JDV were to lose now, he loses everything.

“It’s his battle for survival, not mine,” Benjie said with a wink.

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And yet, it’s true, painfully true: Joe’s losing to Benjie in this fight could well also sound a death knell for Pangasinenses in general. JDV has become synonymous with this great province itself. Were he to stumble and fall now, a whole pack of hyenas in the national scene will be howling and baying in sheer delight. Some of his friends in the party will be seen shedding copious tears – but that’d be more like croc’s tears – before they soon proceed to feed on the carcass of the feisty, brilliant and smart image of Pangalatoks in the congressional dining table.

It would be ages before we can produce someone of Joe’s caliber and stature again after that.