Son of slain Calbayog mayor Aquino runs for vice mayor

The son of slain Calbayog mayor Ronaldo Aquino filed his certificate of candidacy for vice mayor on Friday, October 8.

Julius Clarence Aquino, a doctor, was accompanied by his mother Marcelina at the Commission on Elections office in Calbayog City.

Clarence earned his medical degree from Far Eastern University. He took up nursing at the Centro Escolar University for his pre-medical program.

He will run alongside Calbayog City Mayor Diego Rivera under the PDP-Laban banner. Clarence will face Rex Daguman, the longtime coordinator of the Tan political clan in Calbayog.

Rivera will face Raymund “Monmon” Uy in the mayoral race.

Uy has been implicated in the March 2021 killing of the Mayor Aquino, but he denied the allegation. Aquino’s driver and security personnel were also killed in that incident.

The Aquino family was thrust into the spotlight following the death of the mayor. Samar police claimed that Aquino died in a “shootout” but the National Bureau of Investigation in Eastern Visayas, citing the affidavits of over 50 witnesses, concluded that the mayor was ambushed and killed by the cops.

In August, the Philippine National Police’s Internal Affairs Service recommended the dismissal of five of the nine cops allegedly involved in the killing of Mayor Aquino.

Calbayog has earned the moniker “killbayog” for being a city that constantly grappled with violence, especially during election season. – Rappler.com

Lance Paolo Lim is a Visayas-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship.