Pangasinan town first to file complete list of COCs

STO. TOMAS, Pangasinan, Philippines – This town recorded the first complete slate of local candidates who filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) among all the 44 towns and four cities in Pangasinan. 

Municipal election officer Veronica Tabilin told The STAR that the entire line up of re-electionist Mayor Vivien Ocampo-Villar filed their COCs at the local Commission on Elections office at 4 p.m. under the Biskeg na Pangasinan (Strength of Pangasinan), the only provincial political party accredited by the poll body since 2006.

Villar’s filing finally cleared the air with regard to reports that she might run for vice-governor after several leaders tried to convince her to consider the position that will be vacated by incumbent Vice Gov. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, who is eyeing a congressional seat in the sixth district.

The mayor kept mum on her political plans until she filed her COC for the same position again Saturday.

Villar is seeking her last term in the 2010 elections. She was mayor for three terms unopposed from 1992 to 2001, then from 2004 to present.

She is the wife of Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr., head of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group who was an unopposed mayor here for 20 years from 1972 to 1992, except in one election.

In the 2004 and 2007 elections, the mayor’s entire slate was unopposed.

Villar’s nephew, re-electionist Vice Mayor Timoteo Villar III, who is her running mate for the second time, was also unopposed in 2007. He was a three-term councilor.

Other re-electionist councilors under Villar’s slate are Wilfredo Pescador, June DC Noces and Miguel Quitan Jr.

Neophyte candidates under her team are Jean Marquez, Estefania Vengco, Tomas Cas-tañaga Jr., Alfredo Eleccion and Dominador Lardizabal.