Showdown in Pangasinan’s 4th district: Lim pursues re-election bid vs JDV

DAGUPAN CITY — Fourth district Rep. Benjamin Lim defied alleged Malacañang’s intervention when he filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for re-election the other day, pitting himself against comebacking former Speaker Jose de Venecia.

Lim’s move ended speculations here that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former President Fidel Ramos had convinced him to give way to De Venecia and run for mayor here instead.

Lim, accompanied by some mayors and several barangay leaders from the fourth district, told reporters after filing his COC with the Commission on Elections office here, that Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Lakas-NUCD president, called him up Sunday night in an apparent bid to prevent an electoral clash between him and De Venecia.

But Lim said he is running as an independent, but added that many political parties want to adopt him.

Lim branded as a "big lie" accusations that he had no "utang na loob" for De Venecia. "JDV never supported me during my last battle," he said.
He recalled that in the 1998 elections, five candidates vying for the House seat which De Venecia vacated, forged an agreement. De Venecia ran for president then.

He said he received the Lakas party’s nomination two days before the filing of COCs. But the next day, he said De Venecia "anointed" his sister-in-law, Dr. Teresita de Venecia, and the fourth district was declared a "free zone."

"It is public knowledge that JDV had asked me to give up my bid for re-election to allow him to regain his old position as Speaker of the House," he said.

Lim added: "It was not easy for me to turn (Ramos) down. It is even harder to refuse the President." But he said he could not ignore the clamor for him to run again.

No word of honor

But Lakas-NUCD deputy secretary-general Raul Lambino, in a statement, accused Lim of reneging on his earlier "word of honor" that he would give way to De Venecia and run for Dagupan mayor instead.

Lambino said the Lakas executive committee, headed by Guingona and Rep. Heherson Alvarez, the party’s secretary-general, earlier had declared De Venecia the official Lakas candidate for congressman and Lim for mayor of Dagupan.

Lambino said Lim gave his assurances that he would run for mayor, not congressman, not only to him personally, but also to party stalwarts Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza as early as two weeks ago.

"And I was personally present when Congressman Lim gave his word of honor and assured no less than President Arroyo herself when she visited Congress last week, that he had already reached an agreement with former Speaker De Venecia in resolving the stalemate in Pangasinan’s fourth district," Lambino said.

Lambino deplored Lim’s move to pursue his re-election bid "as a self-serving act motivated by personal ambition and perhaps, other deeper interests."