Mayor Iday, ABC prexy support Celeste bids for Liga Prov’l

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN – The mayor and the Liga ng Barangay (LnB) President here threw their support to the candidacy of Alaminos City LnB President Arth Bryan Celeste after his rival and a political patron did not show up to seek her support for the race on the  provincial board position.
Celeste is the son of Alaminos City Mayor Art Celeste.
“We were waiting for Congressman (Amado) Espino and Jinky (Zaplan) last week to call us to get my support and vote of my ABC President. They did not call or appear,” Mayor Josefina “Iday” Castaneda said.
She cited that last July 20 at dusk Abono Party List Congressman Conrad Estrella, Alaminos City Mayor Celeste, and former Balungao Mayor and present LnB President of that town Jose Peralta went to her house here and seek her intercession for the LnB presidency’s support.
“It was then raining heavily,” she said.
 

IDAY - Lingayen Mayor Josefina “Iday” Castaneda (third from right) poses with Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol (fifth from right) and some mayors of Pangasinan when Piñol visited last Thursday the Capitol in Lingayen to hand over to Governor Amado I. Espino, III (fourth from right), the certificate of award containing the agricultural assistance of the Department of Agriculture to the Provincial Government of Pangasinan for the rehabilitation program for both agriculture and fishery industries wrought by the unabated rains and rampaging floods. Over 81 million pesos of hybrid palay seeds (12,000 bags), certified palay seeds (20,000 bags) and hybrid corn seeds (100 bags) comprised the initial intervention of the DA.

A dialogue at the Sison Auditorium also ensued between Piñol , the provincial officials, and agriculture stakeholders.

The following morning, she cited, Zaplan, who is the present LnB President at the provincial board, husband Sta. Barbara Mayor Carlito Zaplan, and her party came to her house but she told her that she and her LnB President Darwin Jimenez, the present barangay captain of Pangapisan Sur, had already gave their unequivocal support for the candidacy of Celeste when the votation will start on Monday (July 30).
Castaneda said that Jimenez, the ex-officio member of the Sangguniang Bayan (town legislative council),  acquiesced to what she preferred to support because the former was a beneficiary of her intervention when he won unopposed the LnB presidency in the last July 16 election.

“I told the 31 captains that they unanimously support him because after the poll each of them will be a beneficiary of project from her office to their barangays”.
According to a source who asked for anonymity, the camp of Celeste and Zaplan have been meetings their LnB presidents from the three cities and 44 towns of Pangasinan in different locations in the province.
“ABC presidents from the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Congressional Districts met with Sta. Barbara Mayor Zaplan at the restaurant owned by the family of Calasiao Mayor Joseph Bauson in Calasiao while all of the 20 ABC Presidents in the First and Six Districts with some kapitans from the other districts were at a resort in Rosales hosted by Congressman Estrella, Mayor Celeste, and Abono Partylist Chief Rosendo So”, a source, who asked not to be named, told this paper..
Estrella and So are avid supporters of former congressman Mark Cojuangco who had just told So that he would be challenging Governor Amado Espino III for the next year’s gubernatorial election.
“It takes 24 votes out of the 47 presidents to win the much coveted prestigious ABC presidency in the provincial board,” he said.
Another mayor, who asked for anonymity, told this paper that getting the support of the village chiefs cost hundreds of thousands of pesos for each of them to vote for a preferred candidate that could also “kidnap” them a few days in a concealed place before the poll to dine and wine them and shun them to be snatched by another rival.
 “The mayors are also recipients of the dole outs from the candidate of the Liga’s presidency and their moneyed sponsors”.
He said that a rival could not just get the vote of the LnB president of a town or a city since he has to ask the imprimatur of the mayor.
“The ABC presidents from the cities and towns looked up to their respective mayors. The mayors are mostly responsible for their victory in their post at the legislative bodies where they received almost P70, 000 a month’s salary and their honorarium at their barangay where they are the kapitans. They could not just accept the monies offered by the bets on the Liga presidency for the province because they do not want to ruffle someone’ feathers otherwise they will not get the patronage of these mayors in their three years stint as ABC President”.
Moreover, the source said as of Sunday the electoral equation of the number game was 24 presidents are for Celeste while the other 23 are for Zaplan in an election to be held at the Dagupan Village Inn on Monday.
"It's still fluid since another kapitan can still be influenced to turn coat in the eleventh hour," he said.
According to the Local Government Code, the duly elected president of the liga at the provincial level shall serve as ex-officio members of the sangguniang panlalawigan (provincial board). He/She shall serves as such only during his/her term of office as president of the liga chapter, which in no case shall be beyond the term of office of the sanggunian concerned.