12-0 sweep for Team PNoy in Pangasinan 'possible'

DAGUPAN CITY -- A Liberal Party (LP) gubernatorial candidate on Friday said Pangasinan, the third most vote-rich province in the country, will deliver a 12-0 sweep for the Team PNoy senatorial bets in the midterm elections.

Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, a candidate for governor, admitted that there is coalition problem in the local level but he assured that the LP-led administration coalition will get a 12-0 sweep comes Election Day.

Braganza is running under the ruling Liberal Party (LP), which has forge a coalition agreement with Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC). But NPC is fielding former Pangasinan Representative Mark Cojuangco, son of the NPC's founder businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.

Braganza clarified that the fight is not between the LP and the NPC but on which candidate can better serve the province, which has 1.651 million registered voters.

In promoting the Alaminos City mayor as his party's gubernatorial bet, President Benigno Aquino III took a swipe at reelectionist Governor Amado Espino during the campaign rally of LP-led coalition Team PNoy in Dagupan City on Friday.

"Hindi po tulad ng iba, hindi niya isusugal ang inyong kinabukasan. Wala sa bokabularya at karakter niya ang gumamit ng dahas (Unlike the other candidates, he will not gamble your future. It is not in his vocabulary and character to use violence)," Aquino said in his speech.

Espino, who is seeking his third term as governor, was charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly receiving kickbacks from the illegal numbers game, jueteng. He is also facing murder charges at the Department of Justice, along with Pangasinan Representative Jesus Celeste, for the death of Infanta Mayor Ruperto Martinez last December 15.

Aquino said Pangasinan should go for Braganza if they seek clean governance for the next three years.

Campaign manager Senator Franklin Drilon said the Aquino administration considers Pangasinan as a "Team PNoy country."

"When we were forming the coalition, we knew that local contests can't be helped. So we decided to allow local contest, as long as the coalition stands on the national level," Drilon said. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)