Solons to decide UNA bet for guv

THIRD District Representative Albee Benitez said Friday that congressmen will make the decision in choosing gubernational bet of the United Negros Alliance (UNA).

UNA’s candidate for governor will then be given the authority to decide who will be his vice governor.

The congressmen will have the authority to decide who will run for mayor in their respective districts while UNA’s chosen mayoralty bet will choose his vice mayor and councilors, Benitez added.

This was how UNA has been selecting its candidates for the past decades and this is the process that the party will undertake, Benitez stressed.

"For us to be able to say who will be selected by a group to be governor or vice governor, the process must take place first. So until that process is taken, all of these pronouncements are just considered as informal and unofficial," he said.

Recent political developments have seen Governor Alfredo G. Marañon Jr. and Vice Governor Genaro "Lim-ao" Alvarez tugging mayors to join their respective political plans.

These maneuverings are believed to cause major changes in the political landscape of the province.

Alvarez and mayors allied with him have made their political moves without the knowledge of the governor, who is the chair of UNA. One of these moves was the series of meetings held in Manila with UNA chairman emeritus former Ambassador Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. who is also the chairman of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).

Alvarez was endorsed by NPC as its standard bearer in the province while Kabankalan City Mayor Isidro Zayco was reportedly appointed as NPC provincial chair, a post previously held by Marañon with Alvarez as his vice-chair in both UNA and NPC.

Prior to NPC’s endorsement of Alvarez, the governor has announced that, due to the backing of 19 out of the 31 mayors in the province, he would seek reelection in 2013.

Benitez, however, said that "Nobody from the two has declared that he will not respect the process. In fact, if you ask the mayors within the party of they want, I am sure none of them will want the party to disintegrate.”

Benitez further reiterated that nobody among the mayors will want UNA to disintegrate. The current political scrambling in the provincial leadership is not part of the UNA selection process.

It is the governor who will call for a meeting for UNA to start its own selection process, the solon stressed. (Teresa E. Dulla/ Carla N. Canet)