Candidates courting support of Pangasinan party

MANILA, Philippines - National and local candidates are still courting the support of Biskeg na Pangasinan, a local political party based in Pangasinan, believing that it can deliver the bulk of the estimated two million votes from the province in the May 10 elections.

Biskeg founding chairman and Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Antonio Villar Jr. said presidential, vice presidential and senatorial candidates are calling him “day and night” seeking the local party’s “guaranteed winnable support.

Villar said that despite their members’ various party affiliations, they are united under the Biskeg banner.

Biskeg na Pangasinan, the only provincial party in the province accredited by the Commission on Elections, has fielded more than 300 candidates: a governor, two vice governors, 10 board members, seven congressmen, 20 mayors, 25 vice mayors, and the rest councilors.

It has some 2,000 political members, counting the governor, vice governor, board members, congressmen, mayors, vice mayors, councilors, and barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials.