AT the outset, it seems as if Pavia, Iloilo Mayor Arcadio “Cadio” Gorriceta “scored” over the Syjuco couple when he exposed an alleged ghost road project in his municipality. Indeed, who would not fume at the thought of P28-million “evaporating” into thin air instead of going into the concreting of a 3.9-kilometer “abortion” road covering the Pagsangaan-Tigum-Cabugao Norte stretch?

Before dissecting the issue, let’s recap what the mayor has been saying in innumerable radio interviews. He alleges that, in a distant past, he badgered then Congressman Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco for appropriation to concretize with cement the aforesaid bad road, only to be turned down because it’s a provincial road and therefore under the jurisdiction of Governor Niel Tupas, who likewise could not produce sufficient fund for it. To cut the long story short, the mayor eventually found sympathetic ears in Presidential Assistant Raul Banias, DPWH Regional Director Rolando Asis and finally DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, culminating in the emergence of P28 million, courtesy of DPWH, for the project. An initial P10.5 million (the first of three tranches) unexpectedly ended up at the office of District Engineer George Suy of the DPWH 4th Engineering District.

Last September 5, Suy informed Mayor Gorriceta that the project had already been awarded to Patrila Construction through negotiated contract, and that the contractor had started implementing the program of work that would cover “repair and restoration” – ergo, with gravel and sand only, not concrete. Starting last Wednesday, the startled mayor has been talking on the air, disputing Suy’s claim. Not a single grain of sand, he wails, has been delivered even if such a program of work would only need P2-million, not P28-M, to complete.

It’s obvious that he’s depicting George Suy as a factotum of someone else who would like to bag an anomalous jackpot.

Nevertheless, when Aksyon Radyo anchorman Joel Tormon the other day asked Gorriceta whether the Syjucos – referring to TESDA Secretary Augusto and Congresswoman Judy Syjuco – had a hand in the perceived anomaly, the mayor replied evasively, “It’s you who said it.”

We did not hear the good mayor say whether he had tried to call the ex-congressman and the incumbent congresswoman for explanation despite the urgency for such. If such a non-call was intentional so he could exploit the issue, that’s surprising because Cadio belongs to the Syjuco political corral. Without the Syjucos, he might not have become mayor in the first place.

Pavianhons remember that when Cadio Gorriceta first ran for mayor in 1995 when the Syjucos were not yet in Iloilo politics, he lost to Ervin Gerochi despite his perceived advantage of being brother of the popular late Mayor Felix Gorriceta, Jr.

In 2004, with the financial backing of then Congressman Boboy Syjuco, he ran again, this time winning against former Mayor Nelson Gumban. In that election year, Boboy himself was not running for congressman; his wife Judy was, unopposed. The Syjucos therefore had all the time campaigning for their mayoralty bets, including Cadio.

In 2007, Cadio ran for re-election unopposed after another Syjuco ally, Luis “Butch” Jaspe, gave way. Another “mayorable” in the person of Raymond Gumban, Nelson’s son, likewise yielded to Boboy’s request, “Let us not spoil Cadio’s march.”

As if that were not enough, the Syjucos also endorsed Cadio’s son Mike for councilor, and he won number one.

Unless he intends to unseat Judy by running for congressman in 2010, this corner does not see any logical reason behind Cadio’s “rebellion.”

Unfolding events henceforth could prove Cadio wrong.

In that case, would he be seen as rebel with a cause? Or an ingrate biting the hand that feeds?

It is not our purpose to fan further enmity between Boboy and Cadio, knowing that reconciliation could still take place in the light of past realities. In 2006, for instance, Leon Mayor Romulo Cabana also hit the Syjucos, only to reunite with them shortly before the 2007 election.

As the saying goes, kung may gusot, may lusot.

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