Baguio still not joining yellow wagon

THE Liberal Party’s (LP) oath taking for new members on Monday at the Benguet State University was without fanfare but the occasion raised several questions on how the local political scene is shaping up for the 2013 elections.

“We need to consolidate our forces. We need to talk to our members. We would want to know who are still with us and their intentions,” City Councilor Isabelo Cosalan said of the current status of the LP city chapter.

And this process, he said, has barely started.

Coupled with this deliberate process is the petition of majority members of the local LP to recognize Cosalan as the chapter leader and not former councilor and now Board director of the John Hay Management Corporation Leandro Yangot.

“It is actually more of a recognition for the highest elected ranking official from the party and it so happened that I am the third elected councilor out of three LP councilors, including Councilors [Edgardo] Bilog and [Fred] Bagbagen,” Cosalan said.

He added it is sending a message to the national secretariat of the LP of the intentions and desires of the local LP members of the direction the chapter is taking.

“We need the authority to be able to move forward with these [goals],” Cosalan stressed.

Former councilor Jose Molintas was more firm in his desire to have Cosalan as the local chapter leader.

“It is the general consensus of local members for the national secretariat to recognize [Councilor] Cosalan as the leader of the chapter. I have long wanted to oust Yangot [as the chapter leader]. We want the rule of equity for incumbency to prevail,” said one of the leading figures of the LP in the city.

The petition, he said, has now been resolved and the national secretariat will come out with its ruling “in due time.”

Molintas said Baguio Representative Bernardo Vergara wanted to cross over to the party but clarified this intention was relayed to him a few years back.

Cosalan, on the other hand, said he has not heard of this supposed intent of the Baguio lawmakers.

In the region, Vergara is the lone representative not allied with the ruling party. Ifugao Representative Teodoro Baguilat Jr., Benguet lawmaker Ronald Cosalan, Abra lawmaker Jocelyn Bernos, Apayao lawmaker Eleanor Bulut-Begtang and Mt. Province lawmaker Maximo Dalog are staunch supporters of the president.

The “prize catch of the day” was Kalinga lawmaker Manuel Agyao, who took his oath during the ceremony.

Both Cosalan and Molintas though are hopeful and optimistic the city chapter of the LP will soon unite to be able to move the programs of the Liberal Party forward in service of their constituents.

Led by no less than President Simeon Benigno Aquino III, accompanied by ranking officials of LP, Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas, Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and Deputy House Speaker and LP spokesperson Representative Erin Tañada, some 300 inductees were welcomed into the fold of the ruling party in the country.