By Cha Monforte, Rural Urban News
april 7
Compostela Valley Vice Governor Ramil Gentugaya has denied report that he has been swirling lately to be either stepping up or stepping back from his longstanding plan of taking a crack to the congressional post of District 1.
“As before I have the same stand to run for Congress if I get the (Lakas) party’s endorsement,” he said in vernacular in text message.
Word is up from sources from Lakas party in the province that unlike in Gentugaya’s active seal to run for the post in last year he has been observed to be already entertaining to put on hold his congressional ambition and just seek for reelection in his current post amid the stepped up party call to preserve the much-hypped up “Comval Unity”.
This as his closest possible contender Boardmember Maricar Zamora-Apsay, daughter of last-termer Cong. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora, remained to be often declarative and vocal and not hiding her desire to run for Congress in many public gatherings.
Late last year, Cong Zamora claimed that his daughter was groomed by the Lakas party national directorate for her eventual making as the party standar bearer for Congress due her participation to several leadership trainings sponsored and funded by the Lakas national directorate headquarter.
But early this year in a meeting of Uswag Comval, a provincial political aggrupation composed of the same Lakas partymates headed by Governor Arturo Uy, Gentugaya was once egged out by former District 2 Cong. Prospero Amatong not to chicken from his congressional plan after Cong. Zamora introduced Boardmember Apsay as the upcoming congresswoman in his district.
Apsay and Gentugaya have still one term for reeelection in their respective present posts.
The choice between Gentugaya and Apsay has been seen as a potential leading cause of division and possible break up of the Lakas party in the province.
The choice of congressional standard bearer was said to be decided by the Lakas provincial directorate composed of Uy, Zamora, District 2 Cong. Rommel Amatong and his father Prospero as voting member emeritus, Gentugaya, Apsay and four other municipal mayors, who are all party committee chairmen.
Observers said that both Gentugaya and Apsay race closely for a tie of votes of the voting members of the provincial directorate, and what remains crucial is the vote of the presiding chair Gov. Uy, who will break the tie in such case.
Last year, pundits supportive to Gentugaya claimed that he was the most senior party man for the position being the vice governor, but the camp of Zamora-Apsay rebutted that the District 2 congressional post by 2010 elections is considered to be vacant and that the Lakas rule on equity of the incumbent is not applicable since it has no incumbent reeelectionist.
But meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said that Uy and Zamora were supporting the bid of Senator Manny Villar to run for the country’s President.
Though Villar could possibly be the Palace choice if his Nacionalista Party could coalesce with the dominant administration’s Lakas party and he could manage to outbid the administration’s current leading Lakas presidential contenders Noli de Castro and National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, Uy and Zamora as Villar supporters could be facing a problem sustaining the drummed up unity of political leaders in the province if Villar is thrown out to be still with the opposition.
Uy earlier said that the Uswag Comval was formed so they could have a free hand in choosing whom to support as the next country’s President.
He was reported last year to have not liked the scenario of having Vice President Noli de Castro as the Lakas presidential standard bearer. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)
Filed under: boardmember maricar zamora-apsay, Compostela Valley Vice Governor Ramil Gentugaya, Comval politics officials, former District 2 Cong. Prospero Amatong, Governor Arturo Uy, boardmember maricar zamora-apsay, Compostela Valley Vice Governor Ramil Gentugaya, Comval politics officials, former District 2 Cong. Prospero Amatong, Governor Arturo Uy
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