Pangasinan NPC bets formalize bids

DAGUPAN CITY -- The team of Pangasinan Governor Amado Espino Jr. and Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim Jr. formalized their reelection bid for the 2013 local elections on Wednesday.

The whole provincial slate of Espino and Calimlim first heard mass at the Our Lady of Manaoag in Manaoag town before proceeding to the provincial elections office located at the Dagupan City Astrodome.

Espino was accompanied by his wife Priscilla and three of their children.

Espino's slate was complete with two candidates for each of the six Provincial Board districts. The candidates are reelectionist Napoleon Fontelera Jr. (first district); reelectionist Raul Sison and former board member Nestor Reyes (second district); Angel Baniqued Jr. and former Bayambang mayor Leocadio de Vera (third district); reelectionist Mojamito Libunao and Eleuterio Sison (fourth district); reelectionists Clemente Arboleda Jr. and Danny Uy (fifth district); and reelectionist Alfonso Bince Jr. and Pangasinan Councilors League president Salvador Perez Jr. (sixth district).

The Espino-Calimlim team submitted certificates of nomination and acceptance issued by the Nationalist People's Coalition and indigenous party Biskeg na Pangasinan.

"We are very happy with the support our party is giving us. We also have complete slate in all towns and in the three cities in the province," Espino said.

The incumbent congressmen who filed their COCs on Wednesday are Representatives Jesus Celeste (first district) and Leopoldo Bataoil (second district), both of the NPC; and third district Representative Ma. Rachel Arenas who is with LP but has expressed her full support to the reelection bid of Espino and Calimlim; and Carmen "Kimi" Cojuangco of the fifth district.

Meanwhile, only one person has filed his COC in Dagupan City as of 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the third day of the filing of candidacy papers.

City Elections Officer Remarque Ravanzo said one Orlando Ceralde of Barangay Bonuan Gueset has filed his COC for councilor. (Sunnex)