FIRING LINE: Is Joel making a move in Bulacan?

By Robert B. Roque, Jr.

Sixteen out of twenty-four. That was the headcount when Sen. Joel Villanueva convened Bulacan’s mayors — Angat, Balagtas, Baliwag, Bocaue, Calumpit, Doña Remedios Trinidad, Guiguinto, Hagonoy, Marilao, Norzagaray, Obando, Pandi, Paombong, Pulilan, San Ildefonso, and San Miguel — along with the vice mayors of Baliwag, Bocaue, and Marilao. The gathering came just days after his August 2 birthday — his 50th or 51st, depending on who’s counting.

To his credit, the Bulakeño senator packaged the event neatly as a “budget consultation,” wrapped in the warmth of a personal celebration. But to any keen political kibitzer, it looked very much like something else: a governor-in-waiting quietly taking stock of his LGU allies.

No disrespect to incumbent Gov. Daniel Fernando, but talk of succession is inevitable. After all, he would be fortunate to complete his term through 2028 without serious political fallout from what critics describe as persistent governance failures.

Yet Villanueva himself is hardly untouched by controversy. He is, after all, a senator reportedly facing an almost-finalized plunder case before the Sandiganbayan involving nearly a billion pesos in questionable flood-control projects.

These are not abstract allegations. They tie directly to the lived reality of Bulacan’s flood-prone communities — low-lying, subsidence-hit areas that serve as catch basins for waters spilling from Pampanga and neighboring provinces. Engineers once linked to the controversy have since recanted, and Villanueva has dismissed the whole thing as a “setup.”

Still, questions linger. Many think the only way he has squeaked himself out of the same predicament as Senate colleague Jinggoy Estrada and former senator Bong Revilla was his timely decision to break off from the opposition bloc that pulled off a Senate leadership coup under Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

I will never stop cringing from his hiding behind the lines, “accountability solely to God,” at his family’s religious assembly. It is a statement that raises more eyebrows than it resolves — especially when juxtaposed against unresolved public accountability issues.

Memories of past controversies also refuse to fade entirely. There was the 2016 issue involving a ₱10-million PDAF allocation reportedly funneled to a dubious NGO for a questionable livelihood project. Didn’t the Ombudsman back then sniff out some grave misconduct that the Senate shielded through its own rules? The details may now be hazy, but the pattern they suggest remains troubling.

Ultimately, I question now whether every mayor who showed up with a gift and a smile at Senator Joel’s invitation is ready to endorse his brand of public service.

Bulacan deserves more than symbolism and careful political choreography. It needs leaders who will confront the root causes of its worsening floods — not officials who spend term after term explaining why they are not to blame.

Then again, perhaps this is all premature. Perhaps “Governor Villanueva” is not a scenario anyone there is seriously entertaining — at least not yet.

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