By JUNE S. BLANCO
“I was victimized by a treacherous cabal!â€
Thus Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado reacted to the revocation of his certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA) by higher ups of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party due to his alleged dalliance with the opposing Nacionalista Party bannered by Senator Manuel Villar.
Aumentado had filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) with a CONA dated November 18 bearing serial number 22565 signed by then party president Eduardo Ermita and then secretary general Gabriel Claudio.
He submitted the documents to the provincial office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) at the New Capitol Annex together with partymates – Reps. Edgar Chatto and Roberto Cajes of the 1st and 2nd Districts, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, former Gov. Rene Relampagos and their candidates for board members – following the “unity mass†they attended at the Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Tagbilaran City.
After submitting their respective documents, the party members held each other’s hands and raised their arms in the traditional symbol of unity and endorsement in the political world – before proceeding to the Bohol Tropics Resort for the “unity dinner†to celebrate the filing that would mark a new chapter full of changes in the local Lakas-Kampi-CMD history.
Aumentado would complete three terms as governor and return to Congress as representative of the 2nd District. Chatto will replace him while Relampagos tries to make a political comeback as congressman of the 1st District and Yap for the 3rd District.
As the party had given the gubernatorial and mayoral candidates the discretion to choose their running mates, the local chapter had thought all the while that Chatto’s anointed one would be Cajes.
The filing was not without headaches and sleepless nights for regional and then provincial party chair Aumentado who had to choose between the Chatto-Cajes tandem and the team-up of Vice Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera and then Provincial Administrator Tomas Abapo Jr. The latter two were also partymates and had worked together with him to pluck Bohol out of the infamous Club 20 – the country’s 20 poorest provinces – to its current position of 55 out of 80 provinces according to the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB).
In his weekly forum The Governor Reports simulcast live over Tagbilaran City’s two AM radio stations, relayed by another in Ubay town, delayed broadcast in another based in Carmen town and heard worldwide via live streaming in the Internet, Aumentado said he had offered three juicy national positions to both gubernatorial bets but both declined.
The situation however solved itself when Herrera and Abapo opted out and joined Villar’s party.
Aumentado’s other headache was cured when former Rep. Eladio Jala accepted a national position, giving way to Yap in the 3rd District.
At dinner, Aumentado supporters noticed something amiss but could not put a finger on it – until informed much later that Cajes had not filed his COC for vice governor but for mayor of Trinidad town instead.
As such, incumbent 3rd District Rep. Adam Relson Jala was a last minute substitution for Cajes who also fielded his wife Judith, incumbent mayor of Trinidad, as congresswoman for the 2nd District to run against Aumentado.
She supported her COC with a CONA bearing serial number 22522 dated November 30 – interestingly ahead of Aumentado’s – and a letter for the Bohol provincial election supervisor from the national Lakas-Kampi-CMD dated December 1.
Signed by Secretary General Francis Xavier Manglapus and Deputy Secretary General Raymundo Roquero, the letter affirmed the lady mayor’s CONA and revoked Aumentado’s.
In a radio interview the following day, Chatto said the revocation was brought about by the governor’s “committing acts inimical to the party.â€
But Aumentado could not get heads or tails of the accusation. The revocation is deemed a “punishment,†hence he said he was “convicted†– without due process.
Apprised of the situation, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, then party chair until she turned it over to presidential timber Gilberto “Gibo†Teodoro, ordered Yap to investigate.
Majority of Bohol’s re-electionist mayors and mayoralty candidates under the party, board members and even former Gov. David Tirol turned up at the meeting at Aumentado’s residence that same morning. One by one they vouched for Aumentado’s loyalty to the party and condemned the injustice done to the governor, prompting Yap to ask several times for sheets of paper to record their sentiments on, as well as issues and concerns they wanted to raise to the president and to the party’s national directorate.
Yap had asked for 48 hours to bring the matter up to President Arroyo and the Lakas hierarchy. He also vowed to give feedback the soonest possible time.
He skipped lunch in Bohol to enplane back to Manila – and the meeting that “the other camp†called.
A mayor was heard “to bristle†on receiving a call to attend “a meeting with Secretary Yap.â€
“We are having a meeting with Secretary Yap right now, and he will not be able to attend your meeting because he is already hurrying up to catch his plane,†he told caller.
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