NEGROS Occidental Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson admitted that the declaration of support of Bago City Mayor Ramon Torres and Vice Mayor Nicolas Yulo for the vice gubernatorial bid of Representative Jeffrey Ferrer will affect whatever option he will choose for the May 2016 elections.
Lacson had earlier said that he has only two options -- either to seek re-election or not to run for any post at all.
Torres and Yulo, who will switch positions in next year’s elections, are both members of Love Negros and supported Lacson’s candidacy in 2013.
Torres said his decision was based on the sentiments of their constituents in Bago City.
He added that he has also reconciled with Ferrer, and thanked the congressman and Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., Ferrer’s running mate, for the projects that were realized Bago through their efforts.
Lacson said that it’s well and good that Torres had at least made his support for Ferrer public.
“I thank Mayor Monet (Torres), Vice Mayor Nico (Yulo), Board Member Victor Javellana and the city councilors for their support, without which, I may not be an incumbent vice governor. We will continue to be friends,” the vice governor said.
Aside from Torres, Marañon said that Pulupandan Mayor Miguel Peña also of Love Negros has also declared support for him and Ferrer.
Ferrer said that Marañon being unopposed this time is an advantage for his bid for vice governor aside from the good performance of the Marañon administration based on the Negros First agenda.
Meanwhile, Abang Lingkod Representative Stephen Paduano, a close ally of third district Representative Alfredo Benitez, who leads Love Negros, said that they respect the statement of Marañon, who said that mayors in the province who will not support Liberal Party standard Manuel Roxas II will face opponents in the 2016 elections.
“It's the people who will decide for us. Let's see who will support whom and who will have an opponent. We will all be judged during the elections. All presumptuous notions with this early declaration especially those seeking for elective positions will be judged. The people of Negros are not that fool and idiot to vote underserving candidates especially for the top two positions in the province,” Paduano said.