Mayor Rosario Declares Support to Cojuangco

It’s now 41 Mayors for Mark

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – It is 41 mayors now who gave their unequivocal support to the gubernatorial bid of Mark Cojuangco after the Binmaley Town Mayor declares recently here his and his 33 villages elected officials' backing.

CALASIAO MEETING’S GUESTS. L-to-R Binmaley Liga President Arsenio Merrera,  Bugallon Vice Mayor Ric Urdona, Abono Party-List Chairman Rosendo So, Calasiao Mayor and Vice Gubernatorial Bet Mark Roy Macanlalay, Gubernatorial Aspirant Mark Cojuangco, Binmaley Mayor Sam Rosario. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

The gargantuan Pangasinan province has 44 towns and three cities where voters vote for the provincial elective officials.
Mayor Sam Rosario said last December 19 that he has been waiting for one and a half years for Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino to call or visit him but nothing happened.
“Sabi ko inaantay ko si Governor Espino for one and half years na kakausapin ako. Maski minsan isa hindi man lang ako (kina-usap). I’ve been waiting for him one and a half years after election noong nakabalik ako, maski hindi ako sinamahan noong dalawang elections (2010 and 2013 polls) pero respeto lang wala po akong natangap na tawag samantalang si (former) Congressman Mark Cojuangco parati niya akong sinusuyo”.

SUPPORTERS. Elective village officials from Binmaley listen to the speeches of the supporters of Cojuangco.

He reasoned out that he could not gamble the future of his re-electon in the 2016 polls.
He explained earlier in his office in Binmaley that if he procrastinates to go to Cojuangco the former solon would back up somebody in his town for the mayorolty while he could not depend on Espino’s support.
Rosario said he consulted his village chiefs last December 14 that they would give their support to Cojuangco.
Espino has a large number of barangay chairmen who supported him in the 2nd congressional district town if one wants to see how the last year’s acrimonious Liga ng mga Barangay (League of Barangays) election fared.

The legal stand off until today between Liga ng mga Barangay President  Malindong Barangay Chairman Arsenio MerreraLawyer and  Balogo Barangay Chairman Douglas delos Angeles showed that the 18 village chiefs who supported delos Angeles were reportedly supporters of Governor Espino. Merrera, a supporter of Rosario, got  only 15 of the chairmen in the November 9, 2013 polls.
(You can accessed entirety of this issues at http://wwwmortzcortigoza.blogspot.com/2013/12/merrera-cant-sue-liga-prexy-delos.html)
Although Merrera and his chairmen and the 17 village chiefs of Delos Angeles were here, the Barangay Balogo chairman was absent.
The Binmaley mayor said Cojuangco’s heart belongs to Pangasinan because he lived since the late 1960s in Sison, Pangasinan.
“Sa kanila iyong Northern Cement diyan sa Sison. Ako po ay natutuwa at dumating kayo at pinagbigyan ninyo ang paanyaya po namin na maka piling po ang ating kaibigan. Gusto namin mamuno walang iba kung hindi si Congressman Cojuangco!”

Rosario exhorted the almost 300 village chiefs and councilmen brought by public utility jeeps and vans here that the former Pangasinan congressman should be leaving in the United States last December 18 but cancelled  his flight just to meet all of them here.
Meanwhile, a close supporter of Cojuangco, who asked anonymity, told Northern Watch that the political meeting with Rosario and the Binmaley’s officials were held here in dusk at the compound of this town's mayor and vice gubernatorial aspirant Mark Roy Macanlalay because they do not want it to be sabotaged in Binmaley.