Battle Royal for Kap race in Dagupan’s Biggest Brgy

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – Expect a battle royal in this most populated village here after majority of the Barangay Council’s members and a very influential person endorsed their bet that will challenge the formidable long reigning incumbency of Bonuan Gueset Punong Barangay Ricardo C. Mejia.

The source, who asked for anonymity, said he was part of the meeting of the mentioned personalities when they met last Tuesday to map out the candidacy for the village chief of Nelson Bumanlag.

Bumanglag is the brother-in-law of this city’s mayor Belen T. Fernandez.

THREE-CORNERED FIGHT: (From left to right and photo below): 
 Nelson Bumanglag, Rico Mejia, and Angel Gumarang.

Those in the closed door meeting at the house of Bumanlag  were Barangay Bonuan Gueset’s Council Members Ramil Soy and David Raquindin, Fred Ramos,  former Council Member Albert Gregorio, and others.

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“Majority ng members ng mga kagawad kay Noel na!” the 
source quipped.

Those who supported Mejia are Kagawad Sonny “Banjo” Vidal Manuel, Ferdinand Soy, and Segundino “Durong” Ayson.

But former Barangay Chairman Angel Gumarang disputed the information given to this paper by the source.

After reading the article posted at the internet, he said only Ayson and Nan Soy will go for Mejia while Councilmen Ramil Soy, Manuel, Ramos, Raguindin, Ayson, and Renato Castres will support Bumanglag.

He said Raguindin and Susette Pal who were rumored to challenge Mejia on May 14 poll have been won over by the camp of Bumanlag for them to forego their plan.

Gumarang however said that it would not be a one-on-one contest between Mejia and Bumanglag as he will be filling his candidacy for the chairmanship anytime of the day before the April 20 deadline.

"I'm being convinced by a wealthy kin in Cagayan to give another try for the chieftainship".
Gumarang, the adviser of Under Secretary for Barangay Affairs Martin Dino, tangled but lost to Mejia in a tightly contested race in 2010 and 2013 village elections.

Bonuan Gueset is the most populated barangay here with 15,000 voters to boot. It accounted for about 13.6% of the city's population. It is also one of the villages of which the famous Bonuan Boneless Bangus is found