SAN FERNANDO, Camarines Sur – The town mayor here said Thursday that he was ready to face off with Representative Diosdado "Dato" Arroyo of the first district of Camarines Sur in the 2010 congressional race.

Mayor Fermin Mabulo said United Opposition figurehead and former president Joseph Estrada, who was convicted then pardoned for plunder, assured him by providing logistical support to put up a good fight against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s son.

Mabulo's plan to run against the young Arroyo will be the second attempt of their family to run against the power family in the political race in this district of 10 towns, the biggest of which has been the adopted residence of Congressman Arroyo since late 2006.

Arroyo won over Sabas Mabulo, elder brother of the current mayor and a three-term mayor of San Fernando, in the 2007 race that was tagged as the fight of a “David” against a “Goliath.”

The younger Mabulo said there was reason to continue the fight against the Arroyos to "democratize" power the family now possessed in Congress.

"At present, there are already four Arroyos in Congress. Are we going to allow this? If not, the only way is to beat them in the electoral race," the mayor said.

Aside from Diosdado, the other Arroyos in the House are his brother Juan Miguel (Pampanga, 2nd district); his uncle Ignacio (Negros Occ., 5th district); and his aunt Ma. Lourdes T. Arroyo (party-list Ang Kasangga).

President Arroyo, who will step down from Malacañang in 2010, is reportedly interested in running for a congressional seat in Pampanga.

Mabulo said he was all set to redeem the proprietary right of the Bicolanos by electing their leaders from their own place, even with unexpected development of Estrada’s plan to run again in the presidential race.

Mabulo is a member of Philippine Military Academy Marilag Class of 1995, the core of soldiers who staged the July 2003 mutiny.

He was charged with coup d' etat in the Supreme Court but the case was dismissed in December 2004.

After the dismissal of the case, he went into self-exile in United Kingdom for three years. He came home here in 2007 to run in the mayoral race and won.