LP candidates top barangay heads’ polls
The ruling Liberal Party (LP) drew first blood in the positioning for the 2016 national elections by consolidating control of the 42,026-strong Association of Barangay Captains (ABC).
The LP’s Nueva Ecija Barangay (village) chair Edmund Abesamis, older brother of Environment Assistant Secretary Rommel Abesamis, cornered 68 votes, or 60 percent, of the 115 ABC presidents of provinces and highly urbanized cities, while Yasser Pangandaman of Taguig City, a relative of former Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, garnered 44.
Two members abstained while one vote was declared void in the highly charged affair at the Heritage Hotel on Jan. 16.
The ABC national president has a three-year term and political pundits expect Abesamis to play a pivotal role in the 2016 presidential elections much like the heads of the mayors’ and governors’ leagues.
The group of Abesamis swept the top positions: executive vice president Patrick Agustin (Tarlac), secretary general Lorenzo Zuñiga (Laguna) and auditor Jeremy Marquez (Parañaque).
“I am very happy for the support given by Liga ng mga Barangay. We will make sure we will be an effective partner in implementing the key programs of the government,” Abesamis said.
Abesamis and his winning slate paid a courtesy call on President Aquino in Malacañang shortly after the elections. They were accompanied by Transportation Secretary Joseph E.A. Abaya (acting LP president) and Western Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento (LP secretary general).
Abesamis said this year’s race was unusually tight because of the jostling among political bigwigs.
“The fight was hotly contested unlike before when the campaign was not that aggressive,” he said. He did not elaborate.
An LP source, who declined to be named for lack of authority to speak for the group, said Abesamis also drew support from the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Vice President Jejomar Binay and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) of businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.
A source from the NPC said its candidate from Tarlac gave way to Abesamis, while Binay’s UNA was apparently hedging its bets by siding with the sure winner rather than going with another candidate backstopped by a potential rival in the 2016 elections.
Binay’s camp did not reply to the Inquirer’s query.
Barangay elections are supposed to be nonpartisan, which is why political sources declined to go on the record.
The same LP source said Pangandaman put up a spirited fight. He had in his corner Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano of the Nacionalista Party, Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora and his brother, businessman Salvador Zamora, and Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Ronald Llamas of Akbayan.
Llamas said in a text message that his reported campaign for Pangandaman was “baseless and untrue.”
The LP source claimed that Cayetano’s provincial sorties in the past few months included meetings with barangay captains endorsing Pangandaman. Cayetano is widely believed to be looking at running for higher office in 2016.
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