Nearly half of Cordillera 2016 hopefuls running as independents

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The Commission on Elections office in  the Cordillera Administrative Region is reviewing the validity certificates of candidacy (COCs) filed by aspirants for local posts in October, and discovered that nearly half of the filers are not affiliated with any political party.

The regional poll body received 2,016 COCs for governor, vice governor, provincial board members, mayors, vice mayors, and councilors. Of these aspirants, over 46%  are running as independents.

Among the independents are uncontested mayoralty bets Franklin Odsey of Bontoc and Johnson Bantog II of Besao, municipalities in Mountain Province.

Independent candidates for vice mayor who are unopposed include Adriano Carantes J. of Itogon, Benguet, and Jimmy Padchanan Jr of Mayoyao, Ifugao.

In Sabangan and Sagada towns in Mountain Province, all candidates for mayor down to councilors are running as independents.

Liberal Party bets uncontested

Only 16% of the Cordillera candidates are with the administration’s Liberal Party. But of the 37 uncontested political bets in the Cordillera, 22 belong to LP.  

Incumbent Mountain Province Representative Maximo Dalog belongs to the LP. He is seeking re-election for his 3rd term with no opponent.

In the province of Apayao, LP bets running unopposed include incumbent Governor Elias Bulut Jr and Vice Governor Remy Albano. In the 7 towns of Apayao, 4 re-electionist mayors are running unopposed. They all belong to LP. 

Apayao was recorded to have all of its 7 municipalities with unopposed vice mayoralty bets, mostly under the Liberal banner.

Unopposed LP mayoralty bets were also noted in San Quintin, Abra; Sablan, Benguet; and, Lubuagan in Kalinga province. Lubuagan’s candidates for the 8-person slate of councilors are dominated by LP bets. Re-electionist Vice Mayor Elizabeth Pallogan is also unopposed

At least 9 others running for vice mayor in the different towns of the region belong to LP and are unopposed.

Fifteen percent of COC filers in the region belong to the National Unity Party. Among them are two mayoralty and 3 vice mayoral bets who are unopposed in the province of Abra. NUP has another unopposed vice mayoral bet in Kibungan, Benguet.

The Nationalist People’s Coalition endorsed 6% of the COC filers in the Cordillera, among them unopposed Apayao Representative Eleanor Bulut Begtang.

Meanwhile, the United Nationalist Alliance led by Vice President Jejomar Binay has only about 5% of the aspirants in the region, most of them seeking council seats. – Rappler.com