Guv confident of mayors’ support

NEGROS Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. expressed confidence on Saturday that majority of the 31 mayors in the province will support him.

The number excludes Bacolod City whose constituents do not vote for provincial officials.

Only one out of all the 31 mayors in the province has ill-feelings against him, said Marañon, who is the chairman of the United Negros Alliance (UNA).

In a TV interview, Marañon named the mayor of Escalante City, Melecio Yap, who blames the governor for perceived shortcomings, which Marañon did not elaborate further.

It will be up to the mayors in the province under the Association of Chief Executives (ACE)-Negros to decide whom they will field to be the governor of the province in the 2013 polls, according to Marañon.

He cited this lack of decision on the part of ACE–Negros as the reason why he is yet to make his decision for 2013. He intimated that his re-election will still be decided by the party.

Escalante City Mayor Melecio Yap became controversial last year after the National Police Commission (Napolcom) stripped him of control over the local police in Escalante for various allegations Napolcom received against Yap.

Among those allegations were political killings, illegal gambling and gun-running which Yap vehemently denied.

Earlier, Provincial Board Member Salvador Escalante confirmed that some mayors in the province were disgruntled at the governor’s administration but Escalante assured that these differences with the mayors were already patched up.

Some mayors reportedly resented Capitol’s denial of their requests for some projects.