Vice guv to wait for UNA’s decision

NEGROS Occidental Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez said he will wait for the decision of the United Negros Alliance on whom the party will filed for the top post of the province.

Alvarez’s statement came after Governor Alfredo Marañon declared Monday that will seek re-election in the next year’s polls.

Alvarez, who was reportedly eyeing for the gubernatorial post, was missing from the Capitol when 17 mayors met and declared support for Marañon's bid for reelection in the 2013 elections.

"Guv called me for lunch (yesterday) but I was (already) eating lunch when he called up. He invited me to attend an affair at Noppo (Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office) but I opted not to go there," Alvarez said.

"If it's true that he already declared to run in 2013, that's good. Anyway, the election is still several months away," Alvarez said.

When asked if he will agree to the recommendation of some mayors that he will still be Marañon's running mate in 2013, Alvarez said that he is not against the idea but insisted that he will just wait for UNA's decision.

He said the normal process observed by UNA in previous elections was that the congressmen of the six districts in the province, the governor and the vice governor meet with former Ambassador Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco to come up with the decision.

Cojuangco is the national chairman of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) and the founder of UNA, the most dominant coalition of political parties to which most of the provincial officials belong.

"I do not want to decide ahead of the party. That's good that Guv has already declared (his intention to seek re-election) so that everybody knows his decision," Alvarez said.

When asked about the absence of the mayors from his bailiwick, the 6th district, in Monday meeting, Alvarez said that the 6th district mayors may not have been invited to the gathering.