Celeste will win by 100K votes in First District – Kin

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BOLINAO – Gubernatorial candidate Art Celeste will get 80,000 to 100,000 lead votes in his bailiwick's First Congressional  District of Pangasinan versus reelectionist governor Amado “Pogi” I. Espino, III  in the next year’s election.

“If Mark Cojuangco beat Pogi Espino with more than 20,000 lead votes in the May 9, 2016  election, Art will bury Pogi with 80,000 to 100,000,” the relative, who asked for anonymity, told this paper when he cited how voters will decide on their bailiwick's district.

BETS – Governorship bet and Alaminos City Mayor Art Celeste (from left clockwise) and Pangasinan First District’s congressional rivals Tim Orbos and Bolinao Mayor Noli Celeste.

Cojuangco, a former congressman of the Pangasinan Fifth District, got 513, 897  votes while Espino won the governorship race with 736, 909 votes or a lead votes of 223, 012 in the entire 44 towns three cities' province.

 The one city and nine towns’ District have 278, 494 voters according to the latest data acquired  last November this year by this writer at the provincial office of the Commission on Election in Dagupan City.

The major local government units and their corresponding numbers of voters that will boost Celeste’s electoral stocks are Alaminos City with 56, 863, Bolinao with 45, 943, and other towns according to some pundits.

Celeste was a nine years' district representative.

The mayors of the city and Bolinao are governorship bet Celeste and congressional aspirant Arnold “Noli” Celeste, respectively, who are siblings. Their older brother outgoing Congressman Jesus Celeste is the representative of the First District.

Meanwhile, the kin said that the district's congressional candidate Thomas “Tim” Orbos was unpopular in his stints as General Manager of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and Undersecretary for Road Transport and Infrastructure of the Department of Transportation & Communication under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The source said he was transferred from MMDA to DOTC because of his poor performances. When he was at the DOTC he was berated before the eyes of cabinet secretaries and the attendees of a meeting by Secretary Arthur Tugade because of his bravado to announce in a September 15, 2017 event in Taguig City that he rode the illegal “habal-habal” motorbike taxi to beat the traffic.

"I was really bothered, if not alarmed, by the statement of Undersecretary Orbos. Putangina! Naghabal-habal siya! Bawal ho ang habal-habal sa kalsada (Son of a bitch! He rode an unregulated motorbike taxi! Those are not allowed on roads)," Tugade said.

Orbos clarified that the motorcycle driver was just passing by when he asked to be dropped off at a hotel in Bonifacio Global City, Rappler.com quoted the furor that was seen by Filipinos on national television.

Even with the former MMDA chief's explanation, Tugade reminded the public that habal-habals will not be allowed to ply roads "at all costs."

"I will not tolerate making a function in DOTC as an excuse," an angry Tugade cited before he delivered a speech on toll interoperability.

“Ang alam ko noong sa DOTC iyan pinagtitimpla na lang ng kape ni Tugade kaya tumakbo na lang na congressman iyan dito,” the source joked to reporters.

People should think, the relative elaborated, about the fading stocks of Orbos in the DOTC because he was bent to run for a post of a Board Member in the Sixth Congressional District of Pangasinan when he resigned as an Undersecretary  then he changed his mind and run for congress for the May 13, 2019 polls.
This changed of mind, a source cited, prompted a complainant to question his one year residency requirement, as mandated by the Constitution, at the Commission on Election. 

"I think ilalabas na ang decision anytime from now," he said. 

Orbos is pitted with Bolinao Mayor Arnold Celeste.

READ MY OTHER ARTICLE:

Dagupan, 3rd Cong’l District have most voters in P’sinan