| |  MONTES | | Eight
out of 10 incumbent city councilors have signed a manifesto endorsing Vice Mayor
Nuevas Tirol-Montes as the official party chair of the ruling Lakas-CMD here and
not former City Mayor Joe Torralba.
Moreover,
six of the eight incumbent Lakas councilors together with Montes also conveyed
to Gov. Erico Aumentado, in a letter dated January 12, 2006, for the approval
of the official city Lakas slate composed of the incumbent city vice mayor and
city councilors belonging to the administration party.
However,
the signatories of said letter to the governor did not |
include
city councilors Jose Antonio Veloso and Arcadio Sarmiento who are both incumbent
Lakas members.
The new majority bloc of the city council who signed the
manifesto expressing support to Montes include PDP-Laban city chair Edgar Bompat
and Edgar Kapirig, who ran as an independent candidate together with Mayor Dan
Lim.
| | | Lakas
councilors who joined Montes were Leonides Borja, Urbano Lagunay, Oscar Glovasa,
Lucio Balbin, George Olario and Danilo Bantugan.
Veloso,
the personal choice of Torralba to be his runningmate, has been non-committal
up to this time to run as vice mayor and prefers to seek for his final term as
councilor.
Sarmiento, who is the replacement for the late Nerio Zamora,
is expected to stick with Torralba. Sarmiento served as city administrator during
the latter's incumbency as mayor. |
In
an interview with the Chronicle, Bompat said he will be filing his certificate
of candidacy (COC) as candidate of PDP-Laban, however, he is looking at a possible
coalition with Lakas.
GUV'S
CHOICE FOR MAYOR
In
their letter to the governor, the Montes-led alliance leaves at the discretion
of the Lakas provincial party directorate whoever would be officially nominated
as the city mayoralty standard bearer.
In
previous statements, the governor had indicated that Torralba is the recognized
head of Lakas in the city.
However,
Torralba had expressed his indifference to a possible reunification with Montes
who have been seen as an ally of Lim.
Meanwhile,
the slot to be vacated by last-termer Urbano Lagunay shall be filled up by his
own nominee, or, in case of his waiver, by a consensus of the majority of the
party members. |
