Will the son rise from the giant shadow of his late father?

Revered all throughout his political career because no Boholano dead or alive ever brought progress in Bohol in terms of high-impact infrastructure, the late Cong. Erico Aumentado who died the night of Christmas has left no heir apparent to follow his big footsteps. Who will fail to notice the smooth Bohol circumferential Road? Stretching out the whole circumference of the province, it was through the efforts of Aumentado that it was built when he was a first termer governor. He went on to complete his nine years of service as Bohol governor. The Leyte-Bohol Inter-Connection Project, a giant power line linkage between the two provinces by tapping a huge geothermal source in Tongonan Leyte was another Aumentado flagship legacy. Two huge irrigation projects in Ubay and Pilar are two of Aumentado’s contributions to irrigating thousands of rice lands in Bohol.

The new Rice Processing Complex in Pilar was also realized through the representation of Aumentado with the Korean International Organization Cooperation Agency (KIOCA). One ambitious project that Aumentado initiated and babied to its ultimate realization if death did not overcome him was the Getafe-Cordova (Cebu) Intermodal Road Transport Network. As a tickler for long gestating projects, Aumentado patiently lobbied since the time of GMA to have the project prosecuted. Until his death, the project was already in the drawing board with funding of the feasibility study courtesy of the Korean government already identified. Knowing Aumentado, whose penchant for pushing the right buttons in the high councils of power, it was never a masterpiece of understatement that the giant project would have been pushed through.

THE SON RISES

Trust to the limelight by force of circumstance, his son, Aris Aumentado, was packaged as the great leader’s successor. Assuming the position of caretaker of his father’s position as second district congressman, the young Aumentado never dreamt that one day he will fill in the “oversized shoes” of his late father. But try he must in order to preserve the legacy of the late Aumentado. Though it appears now that it was Aumentado’s fault why he shied away from building his own family dynasty, it was to his credit that the better part of delicadeza, a rare political commodity these days, that did him in, when the inevitable came. No regrets, though. In his lifetime, it appeared to be his mantra not to consider power as part of the family heirloom for fear that he would be accused of perpetuating the Aumentado family name in public service.

GROOMED AS BOARD MEMBER

There were talks that Aumentado’s fair-haired son Aris would be groomed to run for board member in 2013 as a crass course in politics. The son’s first foray in politics would have been his first baptism of fire but the elder Aumentado reportedly balked at the idea fearing the fallout from critics who abhorred family dynasties. With the solon’s sudden crossover, the leadership vacuum is very much pronounced and telling with no one to take his place except the reluctant Aris. Except for his stint as his father’s chief of staff in the district office, the young Aris will be forced to substitute for his late father as candidate for congressman in the second district. He will be facing a formidable challenge mounted by come backing Trinidad Mayor Roberto “Ondoy” Cajes who is itching to wrest control of the position he occupied for three terms. What awaits the fate of the young aspirant for the second congressional fight? For the moment, nobody can really tell. But if his late father’s charm and vote-getting power are automatically transferable, then Aris Aumentado is it. But if not, then, he will have to rely on his own capability as legislative assistant of his father, although it’s never farfetched that he will generate the so-called sympathy vote as a result of his father’s sudden death.