Rainbow coalition strengthens
Team Aumentado’s stronghold
Forsaken by its gubernatorial standard-bearers, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD team in the second district launched last Friday a rather much stronger sail onwards the campaign trail with the rainbow coalition that attracted major strongholds of the Nacionalista Party, the Liberal Party, and LDP.
In lieu of Lakas-Kampi-CMD gubernatorial bet Congressman Edgar Chatto, who prefers to back Trinidad Mayor Judith Cajes for the congressional seat in the 2nd district, the rainbow coalition Team Aumentado has adopted the Nacionalista Party team-up of Vice-Governor Julius Herrera for governor and former provincial administrator Tomas Abapo Jr. for vice governor.
The Bien Unido slate of NP, under the leadership of reelectionists Mayor Rey Niño Boniel and Vice-Mayor Petronilo Justiniane, followed suit.
The LDP group of Getafe led by its mayoraly bet Vice-Mayor Cary Camacho and runningmate Councilor Camilo “Lolo†Torremocha also joins Team Aumentado.
The Liberal Party group in Talibon led by former Trinidad Mayor Adel Garcia and Judge Avelino Puracan is also supporting the Team Aumentado of the 2nd district Lakas-Kampi-CMD stronghold.
As regional and 2nd district chair of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, Governor Erico Aumentado proclaimed Gilbert Teodoro as the rainbow coalition’s standard-bearer, along with Team Aumentado’s line up for the Provincial Board to represent the 2nd district- -Board Member Josephine Socorro Jumamoy, Liga ng mga Barangay (LnB) exec. vice-president Dr. Romulo Cepedoza of barangay Poblacion in the town of Danao, and Dr. Mutya Kismet Tirol-Macuno- -daughter of former governor David Tirol and BM Amalia Tirol.
Aumentado also proclaimed the rest of the Team Aumentado’s line-up in 10 of the 14 municipalities in 2nd district include the slates of Mayor Juanario Item and former mayor Robesito Artiaga in Talibon, Mayor Jose Jono Jumamoy and Vice-Mayor Wenceslao Lao in Inabanga, Mayor Elsa Tirol and Vice-Mayor Ronald Lowell Genson "Sample" Tirol in Buenavista, Mayor Louis Thomas Gonzaga and Vice-Mayor Jose Torregosa in Danao, Vice-Mayor Allen Ray Piezas and Mayor Hermogenes Diezon in Clarin, Pastor Gudea and Mayor Jimmy Torrefranca in Sagbayan, Mayor Apolinar Gumanid Jr. and Eudoxio Asoy in San Isidro, Mayor Germinio Relampagos and Councilor Pablo Leo Mayol Jr. in Dagohoy, and the LDP slate of Camacho and Torremocha in Getafe.
Herrera proclaimed NP’s line-up in Bien Unido that supports Team Aumentado, led by Mayor Rey Niño Boniel and Vice-Mayor Petronilo Justiniane.
The slates of Item and Relampagos are among the orginal Lakas-Kampi-CMD group that the Comelec had declared independent candidates for being challenged by corresponding sets of candidates fielded by the group of Cajes.
The proclamation rally dubbed as “LAwas of KASingkasing sa Segundo Distrito para ni Gibo-Aumentado†last Friday gathered over 3,000 supporters who jampacked the cultural center of Talibon.
In his unity speech, Aumentado emphasized statesmanship, values, anti-dynasty, stop the practice of overpricing the cost estimates of project funded by the Priority Development Assistance Fund of congressmen.
As Team Aumentado goes full swing in the campaign trail, the governor launched the rainbow coalition’s sail to victory through an honest, orderly and peaceful election without the taint of money and use of physical force and guns to harras voters.
Aumentado also launched the crusade to stop irregularities in managing the Priority Development Assistance Fund of congressmenm,citing as example, the distribution of defective computers.
The governor proposes the implementation of the Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students (GILAS) Project in partnership with Ayala Foundation and Glob, and the revival of Sine-Eskwela through the partnership with ABS-CBN.
He also challenged critcs to check his track record since the start of his political career in 1967 until the present, citing that he never fieled any of his children nor his wife to run for any position to perpetuate political dominance.
Aumentado hinted that the right man for the Congressional seat is one who can present his/her proposals and arguments before the Congress without a script, especially that the deliberation will be in English.
The governor leads in the recent Bohol Poll survey of the Holy Name University Research Center where he got 53 percent preference among the respondents and his governance earned a +75 rating, while his archrival to the congressional seat in the 2nd district only got 15 percent.
Aumentado attributed his political feat to the late Boholano president Carlos P. Garcia who launched him as a candidate for the Provincial Board in 1967, lending him P5,000 as campaign funds.
In the next layer of political advancement, Aumentado said that Garcia lent him P12,000 to finance his campaign, since the his salary then as Provincial Board member was only P700 with transportation allowance of P300.
Aumentado said Garcia entrusted the fulfillment his dreams for Bohol when he lost in the attempt to a second presidency term in 1961.
These dreams included the concreting and opening of major roads in Bohol, establishment of irrigation facilities, power supply and electrification of the barangays and an international airport.
Indeed, in his three-term stint as congressman of 2nd district from 1992 to 2001- -serving as only Boholano deputy speaker of the House, the 2nd district of Bohol as the only congressional district in the entire country that has a masterplan that served as guide and blueprint in fulfilling some of Garcia’s dreams for Bohol.
Eventually, the mega-projects- -Bohol Circumferential Road Improvement Project (BCRIP) phases 1 and 2, Bohol Irrigation Project phases 1 and 2 (BHIP), and Leyte-Bohol Power Interconnection Project- -that fulfilled these dreams had also served as the strong groundwork of Aumentado’s governance.
In his first term as governor of Bohol, Aumentado has also been the only Boholano president of League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP).
To follow are the third phase of BCRIP and BHIP, the Panglao-Bohol International Airport Development Project, and the Bohol-Cebu Multi-Access Friendship Bridge.
Aside from improving the transport access to Cebu and vice versa, the super-bridge will serve as access for cables that will bring in the projected 1,000 MW excess power supply from Cebu by 2011 after the installation of three 850-MW power plants in Cebu.
In return, Bohol will supply excess water from its major rivers to Cebu to be conveyed also through the super bridge.
With its Bohol point in Getafe, the project will complement the multi-industry cluster that will hold base at the eyed special economic zone in the nearby town of Talibon.
The special economic zone will house the Algae Bio-ethanol Research and Development Center of the Korean government’s Algahol Philippines and its US150-million bio-ethanol processing plant that will utilize the cottoni variety of red algae cultivated in the coastal towns of Bohol.
Other projects up for completion during the governor’s return to the Congress include the P1.6-billion Bohol Backbone Transmission Project of TRANSCO (now National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) that will enhance power distribution in the province from 69 kilovolts to 138 KV through a high tension overhead steel towers from the LBIP Ubay substation to the new station in Corella.
Moreover, to hit the ground running when he makes to the Congress again, Aumentado had already signed the memorandum of understanding with NEDA-7 for the drafting of the 2nd district Barangay Masterplan of Development based on the integrated area development strategy, for which he had allocated P1 million from his Provincial Development Initiative Fund.
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