By WENDY ATUBAN
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — As of 11:40 last Saturday, six are contending to become the lone representative of this city in the congress while the local mayoral post has four aspirants as yet.

Leading the list of the congressional seat hopefuls are incumbents Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr., Councilors Nicasio Aliping Jr., Rocky Thomas Balisong, and former vice mayor Leandro Yangot who is running under Partido Liberal. Two new faces- Felipe Ramos: Independent and Rabindranath Quilala of PDP Laban, are also joining the race.

Bautista and Ramos who their filed candidacy on the last November 20 are running as independent candidates while Balisong is running under NP/IBC. Aliping has not indicated if he’s running independently or not.

Gunning for the top local executive post are incumbent Councilor Elaine Sembrano, Erlinda Busacay-Lazo, both independent and new in the competition, former councilor Jose Molintas under LP and former mayor Jun Labo, independent.

The Comelec list Faustino Olowan as the only candidate for the vice-mayoralty seat under LP so far while 24 candidates are vying for city council seats, 7 of which are running under the NP/IBC party, 12 under LP, 3 belong to Labo’s line up and 2 independents… The aspirants for the council include Roi David-Independent, Alberto Reyes-Independent. Listed under NP/IBC are Richard Zarate, Alexander Ortega, Philian Weygan, Robin Coteng, Emmanuel Clemente and incumbents Perlita Chan-Rondez and Richard Carino. The local LP are fielding incumbents Isabelo Cosalan and Fred Bagbagen together with Pablito Gumnad, Kathleen Bilog; the youngest candidate so far, Richard Carlos, Antonino Cortes, Babot Olarte, Joseph Marrero, Allan Mazo, Roi Vinzon, Raphael Delson, and Edilberto Tenefrancia. Lining up as councilors under Labo are Benjie Macadangdang, Carlos Asiatico, and Florencio Pilando.

“Compared to past elections the list now is very short,” said Atty. Modesto Bahul, Jr., OIC of Comelec Baguio. However, he expects “many more to be flocking to the office in the coming days especially on the deadline” which is set on December 1. He expects Lakas-Kampi to file in the last 3 days.

According to Bahul, the office of the Comelec is open every day including Saturdays, Sundays and the holiday on Nov. 30 until Dec. 1 to accommodate applicants. The office is open from 8 AM to 5 PM except on the last day of filing when applicants can file up to 12 midnight.# nordis.net