The final countdown for the filing of the certificates of candidacy will finally end at the strike of 12 o'clock tomorrow midnight.

There was a last minute change in our slate yesterday afternoon after former IBP Pres. Florendo "Tata" Columnas backed out as a candidate for city councilor. Leah T. Magno, with the blessings of her parents, former Gov. David Tirol and 2nd District Board Member Amalia Tirol, came in to fill in the vacant slot left by Columnas.

This morning, re-electionist Vice-Mayor Nuevas Montes and the ten candidates for city councilor including five incumbents are scheduled to file their certificates of candidates with the Commission on Elections here armed with their certificates of nomination from the Nationalist Peoples Coalition (NPC), an administration coalition party.

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City Mayor Dan Neri Lim will fly to Manila this morning for some last minute changes and adjustments. The latest political development in the city will be known tomorrow when the city mayor comes back.

Reports said his official nomination as the administration coalition mayoralty candidate in Tagbilaran has been put on hold by Malacanang at the behest of a top Lakas-CMD official in the province.

In the meantime, let's put our fingers crossed for the next 24 hours as there are more exciting political developments until the countdown ends tomorrow evening.

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And for the third time, we will be taking the mandatory leave of absence from column writing pursuant to the existing election laws.

Starting on Sunday, this corner will be temporarily out from the opinion page of this paper. We may be saying goodbye for now but remember that goodbye does not mean forever. We shall resume writing on May 16, also a Wednesday.

On Friday, we will hit the ground running for our re-election bid as a third-termer city councilor. So, this is it!

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Before we bid adieu for the moment to our readers, we would like to make public the top three parameters in our final re-election bid.

First, our campaign posters will never be pasted just anywhere except in the common poster area and in some private properties with permission from the owner.

We shall do this to set an example to other candidates who allow their faces and campaign posters to be pasted and hang just anywhere in utter violation of elections laws. Second, the city electorates will never hear us attacking personalities during the campaign. Instead, we shall outline what we have done in the city council and what we shall do for the next three years.

Lastly, we will rely on the strength of our qualification, ability and fitness to the elective position we are seeking to be re-elected rather than on the weakness of our opponents. We shall submit to the people our scorecards based on our performance rather than solicit votes through money and patronage politics.

This is our stand and this is what we are going to do with the guidance of the Almighty God. Amen.

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