Expulsion of mayor from NPC heats up politics in Pangasinan

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) has expelled from the party the newly installed mayor of Urbiztondo town and his mother three weeks after the June 7 assassination of Mayor Ernesto Balolong Jr., a member of the Liberal Party (LP).

In separate letters to Mayor Martin Raul Sison and his mother Marilyn, NPC provincial chair and former Rep. Mark Cojuangco said the “very public sentiments” of Provincial Board Member Raul Sison (Mayor Sison’s father and Marilyn’s husband) toward NPC and him (Cojuangco) “would cause you to be in an impossibly awkward situation as regards the party.”

Cojuangco’s letters referred to the June 1 resignation of Raul Sison and four other board members  from NPC over a looming political confrontation between Gov. Amado Espino Jr., also an NPC member, and Cojuangco.

Cojuangco has announced his intention to run for Pangasinan governor in 2016. The five board members accused Cojuangco of issuing “unwarranted and seditious remarks against Espino,” which, they said, “caused disarray and realignment of loyalties among the followers and leaders of the party.”

In his letters dated June 24, Cojuangco informed Mayor Sison and his mother that “this circumstance warrants your separation from the NPC brotherhood.”

“It is with deep regret that I inform you of the party’s decision to cause your expulsion from the party effective upon receipt of this notification,” Cojuangco wrote.

Mayor Sison was Urbiztondo vice mayor and succeeded Balolong when the latter was murdered on June 8, the eve of his silver wedding anniversary and the wedding of his son, Councilor Volter Balolong. Marilyn Sison ran but lost to Balolong in the 2013 mayoral race. The Inquirer tried to reach Mayor Sison but he did not answer calls and text messages sent to his cell phone. It was Cojuangco who asked NPC chair Faustino Dy III to expel Mayor Sison and his mother.

In his letter to Dy, Cojuangco said the resignation of the board members was “malicious, contemptuous, frivolous and premeditated to achieve negative political messaging and effect upon [my] announced candidacy for Pangasinan governorship in 2016.”

Cojuangco also said Balolong was “murdered outside his establishment” and that there was a “high possibility that the killing [was] politically motivated.”

While Balolong was an LP member, Cojuangco said he had been acquainted with the slain mayor four months ago “and he (Balolong) signified his desire to help us in our gubernatorial campaign.”