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

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Dagupan City and the Third Congressional District in Pangasinan  have the most numbers of registered voters based on the latest records of the Commission on Election (Comelec) as of November 15 this year.

It showed that the 2,956,726 populated province (National Statistics Office August 1, 2015) has 1,946, 638 voters where Dagupan City and the one city and five towns' Third Congressional District have 119,164 and 406, 035 voters, respectively.

SHOW ME THE MONEY - A voter in Pangasinan with the tabo, timba, and palangana (laundry utensils) given by an electoral candidate who wanted to win the 2016 election. With intense rivalries among bets in the huge province, many candidates in the May 13, 2019 polls are expected to ingratiate with  the voters with up to P2000 for each of them a week before the casting of the ballots. 

The district is composed, based from the highest number of voters, of San Carlos City, Malasiqui, Bayambang, Calasiao,  Santa Barbara, and Mapandan.

 The 15 highest vote rich Local Government Units in Pangasinan and their corresponding number of voters are:

1.    Dagupan City :       119, 164

2.    San Carlos City:     111, 170

3.    Urdaneta City:         87, 916

4.    Malasiqui:                81, 342

5.    Bayambang:            75, 911

6.    Lingayen:                66, 286

7.    Mangaldan:              65, 115

8.    Calasiao:                 61, 653

9.    Binmaley:                60, 870

10.  Alaminos City:          56, 863

11.  San Fabian:              52, 334

12.  Santa Barbara:         51, 863

13.  Umingan:                 51, 310

14.  Mangatarem:            51, 150

15.  Pozorrubio:               47, 659

According to an officer of the Comelec, who asked for anonymity, the 1.947 million voters could be reduced by hundreds only because of the deletion on the multiple registrations, validation, change of residence, and others by the Electoral Regulation Board (ERB).

The congressional districts with the highest number of voters are:

1) Third District        (406, 035);

2) Second District     (325, 051);

 3) Fifth District         (324,319);

 4) Fourth District      (310,711);

 5) Sixth District        (301, 968);

 6) First District         (278, 494 ).

For a gubernatorial candidate aspiring for the post on the May 13, 2019 election who gears to snare the votes of the 44 towns and three cities’ local government unit  (LGU) of Pangasinan, the Fourth District is the least in terms of voting population as Dagupan City, an independent component city, is not part of the voting populace of the provincial LGU.

Without Dagupan City, the Fourth District has only 191, 607 voters.

“No comment. Besides, the Fourth District has the lowest number of votes among the six districts’ province. We don’t have that much indispensability on the electoral equation in the province,” a political operator of the district’s congressman Christopher de Venecia told this writer recently when pestered to confirm the information this paper got that the solon and his family supported reelectionist Governor Amado “Pogi” Espino III instead of his challenger Alaminos City Mayor Art Celeste.

(Send comments to totomortz@yahoo.com)