Magpale’s son to fill vacant PB seat; Danao set for Aquino

A 34-year-old son of Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale will fill the vacant seat she left in the Cebu Provincial Board member representing the 5th district.

Miguel Antonio Almendras-Magpale, a councilor of Danao City, will take his oath tomorrow during the visit of President Benigno Aquino III in Danao.

He was nominated by the Bakud party, the same party as his mother, who became vice governor following the death of Vice Gov. Greg Sanchez Jr. last year.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo will administer the oath for Miguel Antonio, the vice governor’s youngest of four children.

Under the Local Government Code, filling a permanent vacancy in the PB needs the approval of the President.

President Aquino will be in Danao City for the 64th birthday celebration of Danao City Vice Mayor Ramonito “Nito” Durano, head of the local party Barug Alang sa Kauswagan ug Demokrasya (Bakud).

He arrives Saturday morning at the Mactan airport and will take a helicopter north to Danao.

The highlight of the celebration will be the formal declaration of an alliance of Barug and Aquino’s administration Liberal Party (LP).

Aquino will then fly to Ilo-ilo City in the evening.

The event will be held in Nito Durano’s residence in RD HIll, barangay Guinsay, Danao.

His estranged brothers, Mayor Boy Durano and Don Durano are scheduled to hold their own press conference announcing support for the rival party, Once Cebu, and its standard bearer Rep. Pablo John Garcia.

The Bakud-LP alliance will endorse Hilario “Junjun” Davide III for Cebu governor and and Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale as his running mate in the 2013 elections.

The President’s arrival also draws attention to the Liberal Party’s intramurals over Cebu city politics.

Rep. Tomas Osmeña said that he was invited by President Aquino to join him in Danao.

“I’m invited. Good for me,” said Osmeña, adding that Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama was not.

The mayor confirmed later that he didn’t receive an invitation from Durano and the President to attend.

Rama hopes to get LP’s endorsement when he seeks reelection next year, although Osmena is seeking the Cebu City mayorship as well as boasts of having closer ties with the LP leadership.

LP spokesman Lorenzo “Erin” Tananda III said in an earlier radio interview that the party was still discussing at the national level how to deal with their Cebu City allies.

For the PB 5th district seat, Vice Governor Magpale said that Bakud decided to fill the vacant slot because the district was deprived of projects, which could be implemented through the annual provincial legislative assistance fund worth P5 million.

She said she was supposed to retire in 2013 with Miguel Antonio running for her post.

Magpale said the party didn’t change the plan to field Miguel Antonio when she ascended to the post of vice governor.

She said Bakud instead recommended that he take over the vacant position left by the vice governor.

Under the Local Government Code, a vacancy in the PB would be be nominated by the party of the official who left it.

Miguel Antonio, for his part, said that it was a ig challenge to continue the programs of his mother, who served the district for 18 years.

Miguel Antonio is a first term councilor of Danao City.

He finished the 5-year double-major Liberal Arts and Commerce course in De La Salle University (Liberal Arts major in Communication Arts and Bachelor of Science in Commerce major in Marketing Management.

Since 2000, he served as vice president for adminitrative services of the family-owned school in Danao City, the North Eastern Cebu Colleges./Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan with reports from Correspondents Carmel Loise Matus, Edison delos Angeles and Reporter Dale Israel