Five vying for LMP top post

At least five municipal mayors have expressed their desire to succeed former San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada as president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said yesterday.

Eduardo Soliman, DILG undersecretary for local governments, identified the five mayors as Pacifico Mayor of Ferrol, Romblon; Celestino Martinez III of Bogo, Cebu; Melquiades Azcuna of Lopez-Jaena, Misamis Occidental; Frank Locsin of Janiway, Iloilo; and Ramon Guico of Binalonan, Pangasinan.

Soliman said the five town mayors have informed the DILG of their desire to vie for the post.

He, however, clarified that the DILG is just a "passive observer" and that the league’s provincial chapter presidents and the political parties are the ones who will decide in elections next month.

"We don’t want to repeat what ousted President (Estrada) did," Soliman said, recalling that Mr. Estrada intervened in the LMP polls during his term which resulted in Jinggoy’s election.

Sources said the LMP presidency would be a toss-up between Martinez and Mayor, who both belong to the People Power Coalition (PPC) and are reportedly seeking Malacañang’s blessing.

The sources said Mayor, the incumbent chairman of the LMP’s ad hoc transition committee, has the full backing of a Lakas-NUCD faction, while Martinez has the full support of Lakas and Lito Osmeña’s Probinsiya Muna Development Initiative (Promdi) party.

In separate interviews, Martinez and Mayor both promised to make LMP an effective sounding board of municipal mayors all over the country.

"I want to make the LMP the direct link of President Arroyo to the grassroots level. We are in the frontline and we know what the immediate needs of the people are," Martinez said.

Martinez downplayed the in-fighting within the Cebu mayors’ league, saying the controversy has been resolved and that Cebu mayors are all united behind him.

Factionalism has rocked the Cebu mayors’ league, with mayors belonging to the local Alayon party electing their own set of officers.

In Pampanga, meanwhile, some civic and political leaders suggest that a Capampangan mayor head the LMP just as Jinggoy did during his father’s term.

"Jinggoy, being the son of (Estrada), did the LMP good. So why not adopt a similar formula under the Arroyo administration?" asked Sonny Lopez, former Angeles City councilor and now the public affairs chief of the Clark Development Corp.

Local leaders are thus batting for Mabalacat Mayor Marino Morales, a last-termer, as candidate for LMP president.

Morales, who belongs to the Lakas-NUCD, is expected to bag the presidency of the Pampanga mayors’ league in elections this week. He is reportedly backed by presidential son Vice Gov. Mikey Arroyo. — With Ding Cervantes