Manila campaign for 44 elective posts heats up

The campaign heats up in Manila as aspirants for 44 local elective positions start gearing up for battle with the deadline for filing of candidacy only a few days away.

While potential administration candidate Mel Lopez denies reports that he is settling for the vice mayoralty post under another strong party nominee, Amado Bagatsing, Mayor Lito Atienza is expected to announce early today the line-up of the Liberal Party in Manila.

A reliable source, the third to make a confirmation to The STAR, said Atienza may run with his city administrator, retired police Col. Ernesto Dionisio as his vice mayor.

Liberal Party members in Manila, including 29 of the city’s 36 councilors, are set to gather at the Bonifacio shrine at 7 a.m. today before simultaneously filing their candidacy at the nearby Commission on Elections district office. Deadline for filing of candidacy is at the end of the month.

As this developed, former Manila mayor Mel Lopez, who boasts of having defeated Atienza during the 1988 mayoralty elections by 50,000 votes, denied reports that he is conceding to Bagatsing, who has announced his candidacy under the administration ticket.

Bagatsing, a former Manila congressman, is yet to be officially declared the official candidate, said Lopez. Bagatsing, while claiming he was cheated, came in second to Atienza in the 1998 elections, who then had the backing of former mayor Alfredo Lim then running for President. Lim, who in turn defeated Lopez twice, is running again for mayor of Manila.

Lopez said he is confident the administration party will pick him as the mayoralty candidate.

Expected to be declared by the Liberal party as their candidates for Manila’s six congressional seats are Joey Hizon (5th district), Nestor Ponce (4th) and either councilors Gonzalo Gonzales or Martin Isidro Jr. (1st). The Liberal Party will not field any candidate for Congress in District 6 while aspirants for the other districts are yet to be confirmed.