San Juan race heating up with curses

Patty Pasion

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San Juan race heating up with curses
Video of a cursing Congressman Ronny Zamora is circulated by the camp of political rival Mayor Guia Gomez

Election day is only 3 weeks away and you know what that means: the race to power is heating up not only at the national, but more so at the local level.

A video was sent to members of the media by incumbent Mayor Guia Gomez’s camp via email on Tuesday, April 12, with the subject: “This is the true color of House of Representatives Minority Leader Ronny Zamora”. 

The blurry clip showed a threatening Zamora, who is seeking reelection, cursing in a public rally in San Juan: “Huwag na huwag ninyong gagawin sa akin ‘yan, pa’no pagsisisihan ninyo, ng inyong pamilya ninyong lahat! P…ina ninyo!” (Never do that to me or else you, your family, and everyone will regret it. You sons of bitches!)

According to a statement released by Gomez’ camp, the congressman’s threats came after her supporters chanted, “Guia pa more!” (More of Guia!) while the vice mayoral candidate of Zamora’s opposition ticket was delivering his speech.

Gomez is the other partner of former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. She is also the mother of Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito.

“As mother of the city, where service is from the heart for all San Juaneños, regardless of persuasions, I am disturbed and deeply saddened that such lingo could come from a person expected to shun street language,” said Gomez in the statement.

But Zamora defended his outburst saying that Gomez’ supporters – whom he described as drunk men – were disrupting the speech of their vice-mayoral bet Rolando “Totoy” Bernardo against Gomez’s administration.

Bernardo, an incumbent councilor, has a segment called “Pandora’s Box” in their nightly caucus where he exposes the city’s anomalous transactions through documents he obtained from city hall.

“Totoy asked them to stop [their] unruly behavior. We even called the police but they did not stop,” Zamora told Rappler in a mix of English and Filipino. He also stressed that the video released was edited and excluded portions that showed the mayor’s supporters themselves causing the commotion.

Zamora said he is challenging Gomez’ camp to a debate, “mayor to mayor, lawmaker to lawmaker, councilor to councilor.”

The Ejercitos and Zamoras have been long-time allies in so-called “Erap City”. Zamora used to be Estrada’s executive secretary when he was president.

But the two prominent families feuded in late 2015 when Zamora’s son, incumbent Vice Mayor Francis Zamora, ran against Gomez. Representative Zamora, who has long held his post, is now being challenged by Senator Ejercito’s cousin, Jana Ejercito. – Rappler.com

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Patty Pasion

Patty leads the Rappler+ membership program. She used to be a Rappler multimedia reporter who covered politics, labor, and development issues of vulnerable sectors.