Dumanjug ABC polls: Pabling and ally back different candidates

For the second time, 2nd district Rep. Pablo Garcia and his ally Dumanjug Mayor Cesar Baricuatro are endorsing different candidates for an ex-officio position in the municipal council, this time the Association of Barangay Councils that will hold its elections next Tuesday.

Baricuatro, head of the League of Municipalities-Cebu Chapter, will be supporting his son, Poblacion barangay captain Christopher, while Garcia is backing his nephew Bitoon barangay captain Tony.

Tension between the two allies started the other day during the election of the Sangguniang Kabataan Federation in the said municipality where the two allies also supported different bets.

The victory of 16-year-old Christian Quirante, backed by  Garcia, was dampened by accusations that 21 out of 37 Dumanjug SK chairmen were rounded up on the eve of the election and spent two nights in the house of Rep. Garcia.

The camp of Quirante’s rival, Meleza Mea Cambalon, who was identified with Baricuatro, was also accused of buying votes at P7,000 each.

Garcia’s son, Nelson, who opened the house to the SK chairmen, denied inviting the SK leaders or trying to influence their votes.

He said the youths, accompanied by their parents, were the ones who asked to spend the night in the Garcia residence because they felt uneasy sleeping in cottages in the municipal oval where the SK heads were lodged for a three-day live-in seminar.

Garcia also said Nelson told him some SK officers live in the mountain barangays and the town had no pension house or hotel for them to stay in and their parents complained that the presence of karaoke joints and Baricuatro’s armed security men at the oval made them feel unsafe.

The SK Federation president gets to sit as an ex-officio member of the municipal council.

Quirante, a third-year high school student and son of a former Cebu Gems basketball player Nilo Quirante, won with 20 votes against 16 votes for Cambalon, 17, a freshman in the University of the Philippines Cebu.

Cambalon, of barangay Kabalaasnan, said she is studying whether she has enough basis to file a protest regarding the sleepover in Garcia’s residence.  All candidates in her group lost the election for other SK positions.

Cambalon said the 16 votes in her favor were cast by the SK leaders who stayed in the oval while the 20 votes that her opponent got were cast by those who stayed in Garcia’s residence.  — Gregg M. Rubio/BRP