Only Mayor Binay can control FPJ

It’s just as well that Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay is now the general campaign manager of Fernando Poe Jr. Only he can do the job, perhaps, for a screen idol who has scant education and no political experience. As head of PDP-Laban, Binay may represent the smallest of three parties in Poe’s Koalis-yon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino. But among KNP movers – including Sen. Ed Angara of Laban, and former agrarian secretary Horacio Morales of Partido ng Masang Pilipino – he alone can control the action king.

This was demonstrated in an almost-forgotten incident 17 years ago, when Binay was newly-elected mayor of the country’s financial hub. Poe’s bosom pal and principal financier Joseph Estrada was then also newly-elected independent senator. A coup attempt by Col. Gringo Honasan, now senator and head of Poe’s ballot security, had just been crushed six weeks earlier. Cory Aquino had been installed as President a year and a half back, with the fall of Poe’s wedding godfather Ferdinand Marcos. In her cabinet then was Ernesto Maceda, now a Poe senatorial candidate, whose ouster for alleged corruption Honasan’s Reform-AFP Movement had demanded. So was Aquilino Pimentel, today also a Poe candidate. In the election three months before the coup, Aquino’s party had thrashed the Grand Alliance for Democracy of Kit Tatad, still another Poe bet. Among her winners were Angara, founder of Poe’s KNP, and Ernesto Herrera, now also running under Poe. Only Juan Ponce Enrile, also a Poe candidate, had survived the onslaught, and was then recruiting Estrada to the opposition minority.

It was a Thursday night in October 1987 at the 21 Coffee Shoppe in Makati Cinema Square. Going by news accounts, Poe walked in drunk with two male and two female companions. "It was just like the movies," the Inquirer reported, "except that there was neither a director to shout ‘cut’ nor a crew to film it." And far from being a "defender of the downtrodden" that his fans love, "Poe was a gun-toting, cursing villain."

Malaya and Manila Standard gave similar details. Poe ordered food and drinks for his party. Then he called the manager Ma. Natividad Zayco to his table and screamed: "Komunista ka ba? Kung komunista ka, pasasabugin ko ang utak mo (Are you a communist? If you’re a communist, I’ll blow you brains out)." Zayco was stunned. Poe continued: "Bumoto ka ba kay Cory? Kung bumoto ka sa kanya, pasasabugin ko ang utak mo (Did you vote for Cory? If you did, I’ll blow your brains out)."

Zayco managed a smile and went about her chores. Whereupon, Poe turned to the other customers yelling, "Sino kayo? Are you from the military? P––g ina niyo, you sons of bitches. Pasasabugin ko ang mga utak niyo."

Zayco rushed outside to ask the security guards for help. They heard a shot from inside. Poe had pulled out a .45-caliber pistol and fired at a lamp. As Zayco was rushing back in, Poe’s female friends stood up and told her to stay away. Poe and the four companions then strode off without paying their bill. They were gone when the police arrived, but a .45-caliber shell was recovered. Zayco filed a complaint.

Binay fumed when he read the papers on Oct. 17. He may be short, but he was kingpin of Makati. More than that, he was always the first of Aquino’s civilian leaders at the site of any coup, ready to shoot down foes with his machine pistol. He was not called Rambotito for nothing. Word spread around Metro Manila that Binay had ordered a manhunt for Poe.

Three days later Poe surrendered to city hall. Binay called in the press. "Meek as a lamb," the Manila Bulletin described the actor, sober and seated with head bowed. To Binay, towering over him with arms akimbo, Poe apologized for his drunken misbehavior, promising to not do it ever again. Satisfied, the mayor let him go.

Binay now towers over all the other KNP bosses as the man who can order Poe to get out of bed and hie off to the next gruelling campaign sortie. He is also at the center of talks, with pal Rep. Butz Aquino of a breakaway Laban faction, to unite Ping Lacson with Poe. Angara may be chairman of the KNP executive council, but Binay calls the shots. Perhaps it’s because reports have reached them that Angara, as recently as September 2002, had exhorted administration Lakas congressmen to speed up work to switch to parliamentary form, lest Poe ride to Malacañang on sheer film popularity. That in turn is probably why Lacson is demanding Angara’s ouster from KNP as a condition for unification. Angara earlier suspended Lacson from Laban, forcing the latter to run as independent and, despite all his money, is unentitled to official copies of precinct tally sheets on election day.

Undoubtedly Binay has put the coffeeshop incident behind him. Man can change, and Binay is very forgiving of repentant sinners. Former subalterns had tried in vain to wrest the mayoralty from him, yet he still sips coffee with them and helps them find new jobs. Once he had the son of a bitter foe, his predecessor as Makati mayor, as his own vice mayor.

Poe, meanwhile, has not repeated the coffeeshop tirade. His reported threatening of a movie writer for a nasty review had occurred on a drunken night years earlier, and in another city. Still another incident with another reporter on another drunken night happened in San Juan.

Perhaps if Binay carries Poe to victory, they can strike a modus vivendi. Poe can drink all night as president, just like his pal Estrada did, so long as he stays clear of Binay’s Makati.

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Catch Sapol ni Jarius Bondoc, Saturdays at 8 a.m., on DWIZ (882-AM).

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