Last Saturday, they officially proclaimed former Comelec commissioner Ralph Lantion, whose family hails from this vote-rich capital town, as the administration’s common candidate for congressman before hundreds of pro-administration political leaders and supporters.
No less than former justice secretary Silvestre Bello III, Cagayan Valley chairman of the Lakas-Christian, Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), together with a number of Palace officials, announced the selection of Lantion as well as Rep. Rodolfo Agbayani and former Bambang town mayor and board member Reonel Saddul as the administration’s candidates for governor and vice governor, respectively.
Also a former Manila regional trial court judge, Lantion is the provincial chairman of the Nationalist People’s Coalition. He is the younger brother of Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chairman Thompson Lantion.
Earlier, the Lantions and Agbayani, chairman of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) here, forged an alliance to go up against the Partido Abante Nueva Vizcaya of Padilla and Gov. Luisa Lloren-Cuaresma who, together with Vice Gov. Jose Gambito, is seeking reelection.
Some Lakas-CMD members led by prominent human rights lawyer Ernesto Salunat met Lantion’s anointment as the administration’s congressional bet with disbelief, claming that he is "not totally a resident’ of this landlocked province.
Despite what he described as his being junked, Salunat, former governor of the Northern Luzon chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, said he would still push through with his congressional candidacy as an independent, supposedly with the support of former governor and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples commissioner Corazon Espino.
"They stabbed me in the back. They junked us despite the endorsement of my candidacy by all the municipal party leaders," Salunat said.
"I truly believe this is the right time for the province to try a new brand of public service. Nobody has the monopoly on leadership, for if this were true, then our future potential leaders would not be given an easy chance to serve as we had limited the options to the same crop of leaders," added Salunat, a former Lakas-CMD chairman here.