Baguio mayor picks Binay over Roxas

Jejomar Binay joins an Igorot folk dance during his campaign rally at the convention center in Baguio City on Sunday night. PHOTO FROM MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB/INQUIRER.net

BAGUIO CITY—Mayor Mauricio Domogan expressed support for Vice President Jejomar Binay, who campaigned in the city on the same day as his political nemesis Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas.

In an interview Sunday night, Domogan vouched for the experience of Binay as longest-serving Makati mayor, a Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chair and erstwhile vice president elected in 2010.

“Talagang down-to-earth ang kaniyang pagsisilbi sa ikabubuti ng ating kababayan. That alone shows at maidagdagdag sa sinasabi nating experience niya sa pagkaalkalde niya tapos binoto pang bise presidente ng Pilipinas, nagtatlong beses na head ng MMDA. Ano pa ang hanapin nating experience? Talagang punong puno,” Domogan said.

(His service for the betterment of our fellow countrymen is really down-to-earth. That alone shows and he has a vast experience [in politics] from being a [Makati] mayor to vice president of the Philippines and he chaired the MMDA thrice. What experience are we to look for? He is full of it indeed.)

Domogan said he supported Binay as a friend although he is a member of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrat party.

He said he does not intend to snub the campaign visit of Roxas here, however, he was not invited to seek an audience with Roxas during the latter’s sortie.

“Wala namang (audience). Kung pulitika ang pag-uusapan, baka alam nila na hindi nila ako kapartido, so wala namang abiso sa akin,” Domogan said.

(I was not invited to seek an audience [with him]. If they will be talking about politics, they probably know that I don’t belong to their party, so I was not given any notice about it.)

He said he would have paid courtesy to Roxas had he been invited to accompany the administration bet in his Baguio sortie.

Domogan said when Roxas as then interior secretary visited Baguio City, he accompanied Roxas for his visit in the public market and his press conference although he was not included in the itinerary.

“Mayroong time na pumunta siya rito, hindi naman tayo included sa ating itinerary.. Yung kasamahan nila, sabi andito si Secretary Roxas, salubungin mo. Tumupad ako, as his subordinate obligado ako nung siya ay secretary ng local government,” Domogan said.

(There was a time that he came here, although I was was not included in the itinerary, their staff told me that I should accompany Secretary Roxas. I complied with it, as his subordinate, I was obliged to do such when he was the secretary of the local government.)

Domogan was elected as mayor in 2010, having served the same position from 1992 to 2001. He was also Baguio city congressman from 2001 to 2010.

On Sunday, Roxas visited the agricultural trade fair at the public market in La Trinidad in the morning, before Binay conducted a campaign rally at the same venue later in the afternoon.

The vice president attended the Philippine Military Academy graduation rites earlier in the morning.

Binay later in the evening attended a campaign rally at the Baguio convention center, where he joined an Igorot folk dance on stage. RAM

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