More Leyte officials take oath as LP members

THE Liberal Party (LP) widens its membership in Leyte as it swore in new members in the province’s fifth district with incumbent local officials and new political hopefuls.

Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla, himself a new member of the LP, administered the oath taking of new members from the eight towns and one city in the fifth district in a simple oath taking ceremony in Baybay City.

Abuyog Mayor Octavio Traya, Bato Mayor Nathaniel Gertoso, Hindang Mayor Elpidio Cabal Jr., Inopacan Mayor Silvestre Lumarda, Javier Mayor Sandy Javier, Matalom Mayor Eric Pajulio and Baybay City Mayor Carmen Cari were among the local chief executives who took their formal oath as new members of the party.

Mahaplag town, whose incumbent Mayor Ronaldo Lleve is now on its third term, took his wife Daisy to be LP’s new member and the party’s standard bearer for the mayoralty post of the town.

The town of Hilongos, meanwhile, swore in another member to be its official candidate under the LP ticket.

The recruitment of LP members will continue and that the mayors who took their oath would be the LP’s official candidates in their respective towns and cities in the coming 2013 elections.

Vice-mayors and councilors also took their oath as new members.

The LP has continuously conducted “Basic Orientation Seminar on Liberal Democracy” for new members and the mass oath-taking is part of the party’s goal to rebuild the LP and make it the most dominant political party in the country.

New members are required to attend a basic orientation on the party ideology before they could become full members as new Liberals.

Governor Petilla urged new members to believe in and support the cause of the party. The party’s battlecry is “Sa daang matuwid, asenso’y walang patid.”

The governor also added that the continuation of the reform agenda is also one of the important reason the LP is strengthening itself from the ground up.

The second oldest political party, LP has a long lineage of icons in Philippine politics. Among them are Senate President Jovito Salonga and the late Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo.

LP also produced four presidents: Manuel Roxas (1946), Elpidio Quirino (1949), Diosdado Macapagal (1961), and Benigno Aquino III (2010). (Leyte Samar Daily Express)