ALPSIDE DOWNED: Mukhang perang Surigao?

BERN, Switzerland (MindaNews / 25 Feb) — My hometown Surigao currently has two black eyes, one inflicted by a fake tribal group that in January scandalized the city with its claim of ownership over most of the city’s land area. The other injury, it seems, is self-inflicted.

Last February 20, the one-day uprising of the Federal Tribal Government of the Philippines or FTGP was finally and effectively put down with the arrest of more than 20 FTGP leaders and members who a month earlier had barricaded a highway and blocked commuters and padlocked several businesses that they claimed were located on their tribal land.

The group, composed of mostly dayo (migrants), had rented beach lots and set up a compound where they quietly went about their business, until that fateful day when they had gone out to the city early in the morning with swords and samurais in hand and with talismans draped on their bodies to stake their previously unheard-of and astounding claims.

The group is charged with among others, alarm and scandal, grave coercion, and usurpation of authority and with the graver offenses of large-scale illegal recruitment and qualified trafficking. With the members in jail and facing trial, Surigaonons were finally able to put this ugly chapter in the city’s history under lock, so to speak.

But what happens when the reputation of the city and its inhabitants are insulted not by outsiders, but by some of its own residents themselves?

The Surigao News Update, a Facebook/Meta page created in 2013 with multiple administrators and which labels itself as a “news and media website,” posted on Feb. 17 a political commentary titled “Surigaonon Wayong nan Kwarta—and Bernadette Barbers will win;” and again on February (this time created by a certain Taga Subangan Boulevard) “The Billions behind Bernadette Barbers: Why Jun Egay will never win.”

The posts claimed that the results of the May 2025 elections in the province is already a foregone conclusion, with the race in the second district “just a formality.”

In summary, the post claims that it is useless for candidates to run on a platform of integrity and good government, because the election “is not a fair fight” and in the end, Surigaonons will still choose money on election day.

I am not ignorant of money politics and the influence it exerts on Filipino voters.

My mother ran for vice mayor in 2004 under the opposition, and my family learned the hard way as first-time electoral participants how voters were ultimately swayed by money and political influence. But my hope did not die in 2004 and in the succeeding elections where I cast my lot with the opposition, mainly because of my belief that the status quo should always be challenged and not allowed to rest lightly on money politics and bad governance.

The Facebook post is a commentary on the contest in Surigao del Norte’s second district, where Bernadette “Badet” Barbers, a Quezon city resident who is the wife of third-termer and current representative Robert Ace Barbers, faces off with Carlos “Junjun” Egay Jr., a local boy and lawyer who previously served the province as vice governor for three terms.

Junjun is a cousin and I am campaigning for him not only because of blood ties, but because I believe he is the better and more qualified bet.

The post claims that Badet Barbers is “backed by billions of pesos, thanks to her ties with the Romualdez empire, Ace Barbers, and the QuadCom influence in Congress.”

That is an astounding claim to make, because to make it true, Badet would have to make it to the Forbes’ Philippines Top 50 Richest list. (The Sy siblings, as the richest in 2024, only share ₱13 billion among themselves.) And then, congressman Ace as her husband would have to explain those billions by making public his SALN.

In addition, Badet’s supposed ties to the Romualdez “empire” and the reported QuadCom influence in Congress remains tenuous and was not detailed or explained well.

In fact, Ace Barbers, who chairs the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs since 2016 and is a prominent leader of the QuadCom investigations, has recently faced flak from netizens angry for his signing the House impeachment complaint versus Vice President Sara Duterte. (And may I point out here that Francisco Jose “Bingo” Matugas of Surigao del Norte’s first district also signed the complaint and got the same ire from some Surigaonons.)

What gets my goat, however, is the brazen and flat-out assertion that money rules the hearts of Surigaonons and that there is no place in the province for a few good and honest men (and women). “Surigaonon wayong nan kwarta” is an indictment that rankles this poor OFW’s heart because it is a generalized statement unfair to my people.

As the unnamed writer of the post presumes: “Politics in Surigao has never been about principles. It’s about power, money, and who can spend the most to win.”

Naïve-sounding it may be, I still have hope that the Surigaonons will find their own versions of Mayor Vico Sotto of Pasig City and previously, Governor Grace Padaca of Isabela, who took on and won over entrenched political dynasties and started good and honest local governance in their areas.

And I still have trust that Surigaonons will ultimately realize that voting for rich and moneyed but unqualified political leaders is wrong, because it will just mean more years of incompetent leadership from political dynasties that have stunted the civic and political growth of the very people they profess to represent. (By Brady Eviota)

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Brady Eviota wrote and edited for the now defunct Media Mindanao News Service in Davao and also for SunStar Cagayan de Oro. He is from Surigao City and now lives in Bern, the Swiss capital located near the Bernese Alps.)