VGuv for Celeste is between Cojuangco, Estrella

Few days before the filing of the CoC

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BOLINAO – As the filing of the certificate of candidacy (CoC) for the gubernatorial race will be next week, the option of the candidate for his vice governorship is narrowed between former congressman Mark Cojuangco and former Abono Party List Robert Raymund “Eskimo” Estrella, Jr, a politician here told reporters.

The source said that Cojuangco’s willingness to join the fray in ingratiating the votes of the almost two million electors in Pangasinan ensued recently when told that there is a possibility for Fifth District Congressman Amado T. Espino, Jr. to slide down and makes a comeback as governorship candidate with his son and namesake the incumbent governor as his vice governorship tandem.

DREAM TEAM - Pangasinan governorship bet Art Celeste (left) and former congressman Mark Cojuangco. Cojuangco is one of the two vice gubernatorial bets being considered by the camp of Celeste as filing of the Certificate of Candidacy at the Commission on Election will be on October 11. 
Photo Credit:Louie Nicart Gonzales

The older Espino, according to the high official, will be pitted with Alaminos City Mayor Arthur Celeste.

“Noong nadinig niya na tatakbo si Pogi (Governor Espino, III) na vice governor na excited siya, gusto na niyang mag return bout sila. “Ako na ang gawin ninyong vice governor,” the politician quoted Cojuangco”.

When Cojuangco ran for the governorship in the May 2016 election he was trounced out by Espino III with the latter getting 736,909 votes while the former settled for 513,897 votes.

 Cojuangco learned a hard lesson on that expensive poll where he allegedly spent hundreds of millions of pesos one year before the poll on medical missions helping the poor around the gargantuan province.

The rumor for the older Espino abandoning his one city and eight towns' district had been leaked last week by the camp of former governor Victor Agbayani to this paper when Agbayani told them that the solon was eyeing a comeback as governor.

This paper did not pick up that information as it was skeptical to its political viability since a congressional seat like in the Fifth District is prestigious and has a lot of advantages to its occupant.

The politician here said that the abandonment of the Fifth Congressional District could be a wise strategical decision so the Espinos could efficiently use their limited campaign funds and win the two major fronts they faces on the governorship of the almost two million voters’ province and the eight towns' Second District.

 Espino’s another son Bugallon Mayor Jumel Espino is believed to run versus a formidable opponent in exiting Board Member Raul Sison, a former rabid ally of the family, who defected recently to the camp of Celeste.

The one who would mostly benefit if this re-positioning happens will be Binalonan Mayor Ramon “Monmon” Guico who was hell bent to challenge reelectionist Congressman Espino after the former first declared his intention last August 26 to this paper.

The camp of Guico said earlier that the young mayor is determined to go for broke with a campaign chest of two hundred million pesos or more in a trench war with the incumbent solon.

“I want to tangle with the older Espino not the younger one,” he confidently and excitedly told this paper when asked that the duo could swap position for the May 13, 2019 polls.

Aside from being supported by his auntie House Speaker Gloria M. Arroyo, the family of Guico is into a multi-billion pesos aeronautical college and chains of malls.

Gubernatorial race in Pangasinan, third biggest in the country in the number of votes after the provinces of Cebu and Cavite, could run to a billion of pesos or more for each candidates to cough up as the 2016 election showed.

The politician explained that Agbayani and exiting Six District Congresswoman Marlyn Primicias-Agabas are no longer fair haired for the second highest elective office in Pangasinan because the former governor chose to help Raul Sison in the Second District while Primicias wanted to help her husband Tayug Mayor Tyrone Agabas makes a run for a congressional seat.

“She wanted to rest after serving her district for nine years,” the source cited.

He said that the Celestes are compatible with her decision because she stayed with them and did not join the Espinos as their vice governorship ticket.

Political pundits in Pangasinan opined recently that in case Agabas went to Espino, Abono Party-list Congressman Conrad Estrella will run as a regular bet for the Sixth Congressional District and makes a run of her and her husband's monies. 
Tyrone is considered by many people in the Eastern Pangasinan's district as outsider since he is originally from Abra Province.

The Six District used to be the political “encomienda” of the illustrious Estrella clan since their grand patriarch Condring Estrella became governor of Pangasinan and later became the Agrarian Reform Minister of President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s.

Earlier, a supporter of Mayor Celeste told this paper that Agabas was being eyed to be the vice governorship bet of their camp because she will complement the political geography of the six congressional districts’ province as the mayor comes from the First District while Agabas hailed and had a command votes of the people in the Eastern Pangasinan’s district.

Eskimo Estrella, a six years party list solon, and his family have their own share of command votes in the ten towns’ district.

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