Hope raised in Pantabangan with mayor, son’s loss

CABANATUAN CITY—Voters in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija, elected old hands to save their town from financial problems that many blamed on the alleged mismanagement of the town’s resources by Mayor Romeo Borja Sr.

The Commission on Elections on Tuesday proclaimed Lucio Uera as mayor and Ruben Huerta as vice mayor. Both former mayors, Uera belongs to the Nationalist People’s Coalition while Huerta is a member of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA). Uera won over Borja while Huerta defeated the mayor’s son, Vice Mayor Romeo Jr.

Gerry Sator, spokesperson of the civic group, La Solidaridad Movement, said Uera and Huerta were proclaimed winners although the results from the clustered precincts in one village in Pantabangan had not been counted yet because of a defective precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machine.

The clustered precinct has 598 voters. Uera, in his early 60s, served as mayor for two terms, while Huerta served as mayor for a term and vice mayor for two terms.

But while Pantabangan residents are happy that they would have new officials, this would turn to gloom as power supply in nine villages, including the town center, would be cut off today (May 15).

The power supplier, First Gen Hydro Power Corp. (FGHPC), cut off power in the town on March 7 due to debts of the local government-owned Pantabangan Municipal Electric System (Pames).

Electricity supply was reconnected on Thursday in deference to the May 13 elections but FGHPC said it would cut off power at noon today.

Dennis Gonzales, FGHPC vice president, said Pames has unpaid current bills amounting to P5.8 million. In addition, it has to settle an outstanding obligation of P44 million.

“Uera promised that the first thing he would do was to appeal to officials of FGHPC not to cut off our electricity supply,” Sator said.

“He said Pantabangan residents had suffered more than enough and they needed relief.” Sator said Uera vowed to work harder to correct the fiscal mismanagement in the town that resulted in problems that disrupted government and business operations.

Among the other problems facing the new administration are the unremitted contributions of employees to the Government Service Insurance System, Pag-Ibig Fund and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and the tax shares of villages in Pantabangan.