3 bets eyeing Kalayaan post

MANILA, Philippines - Amid tensions over the territorial row in the West Philippine Sea, political fever is also rising at the Kalayaan island town in the hotly contested Spratlys in connection with the midterm elections in May next year.

Two local politicians have declared their respective intentions to run for mayor of Kalayaan, Palawan’s sixth class municipality, a position currently occupied by Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr.

Vice Mayor Rosendo Mantes and Councilor Noel Osorio are out to challenge Bito-onon.

With no available transport to Pag-asa Island since the Western Command (Wescom) has been utilizing all its available air and sea assets for territorial patrols, Mantes boarded the town’s motor launch scheduled to depart from mainland Palawan.

The vessel, ML Queen Seagull, is loaded with construction materials to jumpstart development in the island municipality.

The ship was cleared to sail through a special permit issued by the Maritime Industry Authority, on the condition that the vessel does not carry passengers. Mantes’ presence on board delayed the vessel’s sailing.

“There he (Mantes) is. He never wanted to go down the boat so that’s why we now have a little bit of a standoff,” Bito-onon said.

Mantes is reportedly going to Kalayaan in order to file his certificate of candidacy for next year’s elections during the filing period of Oct. 1 to 5 set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

In Osorio’s case, Bito-onon said that he doesn’t know how he will file his COC next month. He added a local Comelec registrar who will be manning the Comelec post in Kalayaan will be flown by an Air Force plane to the area next month to receive the COCs.

“I don’t know the reason why they’re out to challenge me despite my all-out effort to unify everybody for the good of our island municipality,” Bito-onon said.

Kalayaan town in Pag-asa Island has 216 registered voters, some of them military men currently on forward deployment in the area to guard the country’s regime of islands in the hotly contested region.

“Before, the voters were soldiers, but this year, civilians, mostly fishermen, have already outnumbered the military in terms of registered voters,” Bito-onon said.

Tension has been mounting in the region due to territorial disputes among claimant countries brought about by the aggressive behavior of China in pressing its claim on almost the entire region.

Other claimants, aside from the Philippines, are Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.