Expelled from LP, gov still backs Roxas

Camarines Norte Gov. Edgardo Tallado has expressed his full support for the presidential bid of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas in the 2016 elections despite his expulsion from the ruling Liberal Party (LP) over his much-publicized extramarital affair.

A smiling Tallado approached Roxas and exchanged pleasantries with the presidential candidate of the LP-led administration coalition during the assembly of the League of Provinces of the Philippines in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, on Thursday.

He was also seen whispering something to the interior secretary as Roxas, who was formally endorsed by President Aquino as the LP’s standard-bearer last week, went around to shake hands with the governors who attended the event.

Asked what he told Roxas, Tallado said: “I just told him that I love him.”

“For me, nothing has changed. I will support him. I still believe in him and his program of government,” the governor said.

Mass leave of LP members

When asked if his political allies in Camarines Norte would also back Roxas in next year’s polls, he claimed: “They will support whoever I will support in 2016.”

In July, some 500 LP members in the province issued a resolution and took a mass leave of absence from the party to protest Tallado’s ouster.

Among those who temporarily left the LP were Vice Gov. Jonah Pimentel and mayors, vice mayors, councilors and village officials of 12 municipalities.

In expelling Tallado, the LP national directorate said his “grossly immoral act” had “tarnished the good name and reputation of the LP as a whole” after his illicit relationship with a young woman came out on the Internet.

The LP said ensuring decency and moral uprightness among its members was part of its straight path advocacy (daang matuwid) and that it was “determined to maintain leaders with high moral fiber and integrity, considering that their constituents look up to them for leadership and inspiration.”

The marital scandal went public after the governor had initially claimed that his wife, Josefina, and her friend had gone missing.

But his wife surfaced a few days later and disclosed to the media that she had actually left their conjugal home in Daet town on Oct. 17, 2014, after Tallado threatened to harm her, suspecting that she had posted his picture with his alleged mistress on Facebook.

His dismissal from the LP stemmed from a complaint filed by Daet Mayor Tito Sarion whom the governor had earlier accused of disloyalty for attending an event organized by their political rivals in the province. Camarines Norte has about 300,000 registered voters.