ILOILO City – Cong. Ferjenel Biron of Iloilo’s 4th District played down the endorsement that his rival for governor Cong. Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. (3rd District, Iloilo) got from House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
It was “something very expected” because they belonged to the same political party, said Biron yesterday afternoon at the University of San Agustin gym where he organized the mass oath-taking of thousands of Iloilo barangay captains, barangay councilmen and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) presidents.
Defensor and Alvarez belonged to the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) of President Rodrigo Duterte. Biron, on the other hand, belonged to the Nacionalista Party (NP) that has an alliance with PDP-Laban.
The packed university gym appeared to be Biron’s answer to the endorsement that Alvarez gave Defensor yesterday morning in a separate mass oath-taking of barangay captains from Iloilo province, Iloilo City and Guimaras at the Iloilo Convention Center.
It was previously reported that Alvarez, too, would administer the oath of office of barangay officials invited to the Biron-organized mass oath-taking but the House Speaker was a no-show in the event.
It was Public Works secretary Mark Villar who led the oath-taking of 1,009 barangay captains, 7,121 barangay kagawads and several SK chairmen.
“As much as Speaker (Alvarez) wanted nga mag upod man sya diri tani sa aton, pero ti may mga constraints man s’ya…gusto ‘ya man tani bilog nga probinsya but that is the obvious limitation,” said Biron.
Villar is the son of NP stalwart Sen. Cynthia Villar.
All mayors of the 2nd and 5th districts graced the mass oath-taking; there were five mayors from the 4th District. None of the mayors from the 1st and 3rd districts showed up.
On the other hand, mayors present at the Defensor-organized mass oath-taking were Macario Napulan of Miag-ao (1st District), Jefree Alonsabe of Alimodian, Ronilo Cajilig of Leon and Dennis Superficial of Santa Barbara (2nd District), all 3rd District mayors, and Jett Rojas of Ajuy and Pedro Alarcon of Batad from the 5th District.
The 5th District’s Cong. Raul Tupas was present at the Biron-organized event, too. The 2nd District’s Cong. Arcadio Gorriceta was represented by his son, Pavia, Iloilo’s Mayor Mike Gorriceta.
Cong. Richard Garin of the 1st District was present at the Defensor-organized mass oath-taking in the morning./PN
