La Union politics Eriguels keep posts

SAN FERNANDO, La Union, Philippines – La Union second district Rep. Eufranio Eriguel and his wife, Mayor Sandra Eriguel of Agoo town, are keeping their posts for another term, as they and majority of their allies in the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) topped the midterm elections. 

Rep. Eriguel, now on his second term, defeated for the second time in a row former congressman Butch Dumpit by garnering 145,322 votes against Dumpit’s 27,037, or a wide margin of 118,285 votes. 

On the other hand, Mayor Eriguel, now on her third and final term, got 17,595 votes against the 7,384 votes of retired Army general Mario Chan.

All the 10 winning mayors and vice mayors and majority of the councilors in the second district are allied with the Eriguels, including all the five winning provincial board members in the district.

Eriguel said NPC candidates now dominate the province’s political arena with 18 of the 20 winning mayors.

The two other winning mayoral bets not allied with the NPC are San Fernando City Mayor Pablo Ortega who ran as an independent, and Mayor Martin de Guzman of Bauang town who belongs to the Partido ng Masang Pilipino.

All the NPC mayoral bets in the towns of Agoo, Aringay, Bacnotan, Bagulin, Balaoan, Bangar, Burgos, Caba, Luna, Naguilian, Pugo, Rosario, San Gabriel, San Juan, Sto. Tomas, Santol, Sudipen and Tuba have been proclaimed winners.

In the vice mayoral races, only the LP candidates in the towns of Bauang and San Gabriel emerged as winners, and the rest belong to the NPC. 

Incumbent San Fernando City Vice Mayor Dong Gualberto, an independent bet, defeated board member Pepe Ortega of the NPC.  

Of the 152 winning municipal councilors in the 19 towns, LP has 10; Lakas-CMD has five; Partido ng Demokratokong Pilipino has four; 17 are independent bets; Partido ng Masang Pilipino has seven; and the rest belong to the NPC. 

Leading the cast of NPC winners in the provincial level are re-elected Gov. Manuel Ortega, NPC provincial chairman, and Rep. Eriguel, NPC chairman in the second district. 

Other re-elected NPC candidates are Vice Gov. Aureo Nisce and incumbent provincial board members Kit Ortega, Rey Mosuela, Boy Ostrea, Vicky Aragon, Robert Madarang and Ruperto Rillera. New additions to the board are Jayjay Orros, Larry Flores and Christian Rivera, also all of the NPC. 

Among the 10 elected board members, only incumbent board member Nancy Bacurnay is under LP. 

Re-elected first district Rep. Victor Ortega belongs to Lakas-CMD.