Lawmaker, 16 Northern Samar mayors join Lakas-Kampi-CMD

MANILA, Philippines - A large group of local Northern Samar officials led by Rep. Emil Ong (second district), six provincial board members and 16 municipal mayors took their oath Monday as new members of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD, the second major defection to the ruling party from the Visayas in two weeks.

Ong, an influential political leader in the Eastern Visayas, and 29 other local officials were sworn in by party president, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, at the Malacañang Guest House.

They were the latest members to embrace the Lakas-Kampi-CMD ideology and pledge support for Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., the ruling party’s presumptive presidential candidate in the presidential elections in May next year.

Ong’s delegation followed Marinduque Gov. Jose Antonio Carrion’s breakaway group of eight provincial board members and four municipal executives who took their oath before Ermita last Oct. 10.

“We believe in Lakas-Kampi-CMD’s proven capacity to lead the nation,” said Ong, after the mass oathtaking witnessed by Secretary Gabriel Claudio, the party’s secretary-general.

“We must sustain what the party has built rather than experiment with officials with no achievement record to show,” Ong added.

With the addition of the Northern Samar officials, Ermita said the party’s ranks in the Visayas have been bolstered and will be a building block in the party’s drive to victory in the presidential elections.

“Rep. Ong brings to the party a high level of political influence down to the grassroots level,” Ermita said.

Those who also took their oath before Ermita were Vice Gov. Antonio Lucero, and Mayors Jaime Garcia Sr. (Biri), Benjamin Lao (Bobon), Ignacio Cascano (Capul), Alita Rosales (Catarman), Quintin Saludaga (Lavezares), Erlinda Cinco (Lope de Vega), Basilio Miranda (Rosario), Nicolas Puro Jr. (Victoria), Timoteo Capoquian (Gamay), Madeleine Ong (Laoang), Romualdo Menzom (Lapinig), Arlito Tan (Las Navas), Felipe Laodenio (Mapanas), Rogelio Tan (Pambujan), Andrei Avalon (San Roque), and Edmund Gillamac (Silvino Lobos).

The others who took their oath were former Rep. Harlin Abayon and board members Francisco Rosales Jr., Gary Lavin, Rodolfo del Valle, Maritess Gillamac, Alfredo Dulay, Ben Gorembalem and Miguel Sarmiento, and Vice Mayor Arturo Dubongco (Allen).

Earlier this month, eight Liberal Party congressmen defected to Lakas-Kampi-CMD, eroding support for the LP presidential tandem and strengthening the growing support for Teodoro as the prospective Lakas-Kampi standard-bearer.