Thursday, March 22, 2007 13 file poll bids in Baguio, Benguet By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
WITH just over a week before the March 29 deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) for local elective posts, 13 have already submitted their respective bids in Baguio City and Benguet as of Wednesday.
Records of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) showed that two have filed COCs for the mayoralty post and a City Council seat in Baguio while one has already submitted a COC for a congressional position in Benguet, with 10 others forming a complete slate in the municipality of Tuba.
Comelec Baguio Officer Maribelle Uminga identified the lone mayoralty candidate for Baguio as Felipe Tribulano Ramos, 71, widowed, a registered voter in Barangay Kagitingan. Another candidate, Valentino Balallo Saculles, a criminologist and a registered voter in Camp Allen, filed a COC for councilor.
In Benguet, former congressman Ronald Morales Cosalan filed his CoC for a congressional seat in the province under the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) Party on March 14.
Ten others, who filed their bids on Wednesday for elective positions in Tuba, Benguet under the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), were mayoralty candidate Florencio Ventura Bentrez, vice mayoralty bet Valentino Umayam Carantes and Municipal Council bets Pedro Tanec Esteban, Clarita Pagnas Sal-ongan, Melchor Costina Walang, Adora Koyukoy Paus, Rebecca Yaris Apil, Rufo Pitpitan Gayaso, Garey Gonzales Behis and Santos Bumacas Dulawan.
This developed as former Baguio mayor Bernardo Vergara revealed that aside from being selected as candidate for the Baguio mayoralty post under the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), he was also nominated as official candidate for the same position under Lakas-CMD.
Vergara confirmed this by furnishing Sun.Star Baguio a certificate of nomination and acceptance signed by Lakas-CMD president and House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and secretary-general Marcelino Libanan dated Feb. 21, 2007.
According to him, he was also sworn into the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), which is headed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, by no less than Kampi president Luis Villafuerte Jr. last month.
Acting Baguio Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr., however, belied Vergara's claim, saying although the former mayor was accepted as a member of Kampi, it was he who was designated as district head, and as such, was given the sole authority to choose who would be included in the local slate for the city.
