For 3rd district of Bohol: LP congressional bet withdraws bid

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines – Liberal Party’s official congressional candidate for the 3rd district of Bohol, Mayor Leon Calipusan of Loboc town, yesterday withdrew his candidacy at the Comelec provincial office here.

The withdrawal of  Calipusan as a candidate left the LP without an official bet in the 3rd district for the May 2013 elections and without opposition against reelectionist Rep. Arthur Yap, whose wife also hails from Loboc, about 23 kilometers from this city.

Comelec-Bohol election supervisor Eliseo Labaria confirmed this development in a radio report saying that Calipusan cited “health and family” as his reasons for retracting his bid for congressman.

In his official statement aired over the radio, Calipusan gave other reasons and sentiments. He expressed disappointment that his LP party-mates had forsaken him and supported instead Yap, who is running under the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).

He said he withdrew his candidacy because most of his party-mates, especially the majority of the19 municipal mayors in the district, “did not recognize and throw support for him.” Some of those mayors even went to the extent of campaigning against him, he alleged but without naming names.

During his rounds to some towns in the district, barangay captains and mayors told Calipusan that they could not turn their backs on Yap who had efficiently delivered the services and projects their people needed. Even before Calipusan became the LP candidate, they said they already expressed support to Yap’s reelection bid.

This helped Calipusan finalized his decision to back out of the congressional race, but he said the mayors’ support for Yap is another “politics of convenience.”

The choice of Calipusan as a candidate from among other hopefuls—former schools superintendent Elpidio Jala and businessman Angelo Balili, all from Loboc—was the decision of the LP national directorate and not by the LP-Bohol hierarchy.

Calipusan said he had accomplished enough as mayor of Loboc that he earned the nomination of the ruling LP, adding that it was for pride and power that he wanted to be elected as congressman of 3rd district, but to introduce reforms.

He said he filed his candidacy because of the LP’s crusade of good governance and to follow the “daang matuwid” of President Noynoy Aquino. “But all of these are in vain,” he said, clarifying that he supported Aquino’s anti-corruption advocacy, which he claimed to have carried out in his town.

While admitting that he had not enough funds and resources to match Yap’s, he said that he accepted the choice for him to run for Congress because he wanted to replicate, in the field of tourism, what he did in his town that became famous and economically progressive due to its famous Loboc River Cruise.

On this, Calipusan assured the Boholanos that he would continue his Calipusan Alang sa Repormang Epektibo advocacy even as a private person after his term as mayor of Loboc. He admitted he could do nothing more if his service is not needed. “The pursuit for effective reforms will just have to wait for the proper time,” he said.

Yap, for his part, may just wait till the election is over and would just take his oath as congressman for a second term. This is his second time to run unopposed. In 2010, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo prevailed upon then congressman and now commissioner Eladio Jala of the Securities and Exchange Commission not to run against Yap. (FREEMAN)