Sayson assures Puentevella: I will survive

NATIONALIST People's Coalition Grupo Progreso mayoralty candidate Bacolod Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson assured his political opponent, MKK mayoralty candidate Monico Puentevella, that he will survive the challenges of the May 2013 polls.

Friday last week, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissed Puentevella’s petition for recount against Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia arising from their electoral contest in 2010.

Sayson reacted to this development by stating that, if he wins in the 2013 election for Bacolod mayor against Puentevella, he also expects Puentevella to file a protest.

Puentevella retorted by referring to Sayson’s 2013 post-election scenario as an “Impossible Dream”, a 1960s song popularized by Andy Williams.

Thus, when asked for his reaction to his political rival’s twit, Sayson fired back with “I will survive”, a late-70s disco number originally sang by Gloria Gaynor.

“If he is singing ‘The Impossible Dream’ to me, what I can say is ‘I will Survive’,” said Sayson.

Sayson said “Impossible Dream” was the same song Puentevella sang to Leonardia when they both ran for mayor of Bacolod in 2010. The vice-mayor pointed out that the impossible dream became a reality to Leonardia while it became a nightmare to Puentevella.

“I believe it is time for new politics to come in. There should be an end to below-the-belt type of politics, like what happened when Julius Sayson filed his candidacy for mayor of Bacolod,” added Sayson who believes that his namesake’s unexpected entry into the mayoralty race was politically motivated.

“There should be no place for this kind of politics in Bacolod, especially under the leadership of our President who is advocating ‘matuwid na daan’,” Sayson said.

“I believe it is high time that we practice new politics and forget about the ‘stone age’ type of politics that has been practiced before,” he said.

By letting somebody run with the same family name against one’s political opponent is not fair play. As former chairman of the Philippine Olympic Committee that advocates fair play, he was accused of vote-buying, which I think is not a very good example to our future athletes. I think that is the reason why we are not doing well in international sports competitions, continued Sayson.

Sayson said he believes Julius might have been pressured by his political opponent to run against him. They do not know his whereabouts at the moment. I do not know where he is being kept or where he is hiding, he added.

“If he asks for reconsideration, it will put the Comelec in jeopardy. But we have a very solid decision from the Comelec First Division that he is a nuisance candidate and I believe Comelec will not reverse its decision,” said Sayson.