Nephew beats uncle in P'gasinan town mayoralty race

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO - A young politician trounced his paternal uncle who was a former three term mayor for the highest elective office here.

Calasiao Mayor-Elect Joseph Arman Bauzon

Joseph Arman Bauzon, who started as village chief and councilor, beat by 3,452 votes’ margin his father’s first cousin Roy Macanlalay in an election that saw monies swamped the 24 villages’ town.

Bauzon, whose father Armando is the barangay chairman of Ambonao here, fought Macanlalay in an acrimonious and mudslinging laced campaign.

Macanlalay is a well entrenched politician as he is the outgoing vice mayor here and with two sons Allan, the League of Barangay President, and Mark, the mayor here who just lost in a nail-biting vice gubernatorial bid against reelectionist Vice Governor Ferdinand Calimlim.

A source at the Bauzon camp said that at 7:00 pm of May 9, Macanlalay called through the phone the new mayor to congratulate him and conceded despite the votes were still being counted.

After all the votes were tallied, the Commission on Election partical and unofficial result showed that Bauzon got 23,765 while Macanlalay had 20,313.

Bauzon’s vice mayoralty tandem come backing former vice mayor Ferdinand Galang won by 17,732 votes versus Macanlalay’s vice mayoralty bet Narciso Chuson, Jr. 16,117.

Upon assumption in office on June 30, Bauzon said he would do the following:

“Unahin po natin ang magkaroon ng transparency sa ating bayan at iyong basic needs sa mga mangyayari sa bayan, problema po sa basura, problema po sa ating fire department, it s more on livelihood program at ang problema po natin sa traffic sa bayan ng Calasiao,” he told a radio interview.

Bauzon, whose family is into construction business and an ally of Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr, was grateful to the trust reposed to him in the poll by the majority of the people here.