Multi-cornered battle in Baguio’s congressional race shaping up

BAGUIO CITY —  A multi-cornered fight in Baguio City’s congressional race is beginning to take shape, with former lawmaker Nicasio Aliping launching his bid during the first day of filing for certificates of candidacy on Tuesday, October 1.

At past 9 a.m.,  independent bet Aliping, once Baguio’s lawmaker, sought to redeem himself after he and public works contractors were sued for illegal tree cutting and earth moving activities at the Mt. Sto. Tomas Forest Reserve in Tuba in 2016. He was, however, acquitted in 2022 and is again seeking his return into the House of Representatives.

Expected to join in the five or six-cornered Baguio’s congressional race is Gladys Vergara, daughter of former Baguio City long-time representative Bernardo Vergara, who served the city for 12 years as mayor then lawmaker. 

The younger Vergara, present chairperson of the Baguio Tourism Council (BTC), is scheduled to formally file her Congressional bid on October 7. 

"There is a big clamor from the people of Baguio for her to become the city’s lone district legislator," she said.

Vergara sat as 1988 as youth representative in the City Council when she was the federation president of the then Kabataang Barangay (KB), now Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) in 1992.

Another long-time Baguio City mayor and representative Mauricio Domogan, dubbed as the "Janitor" and was a Congressional Hall of Famer awardee, is also reportedly seeking a seat at the House of Representatives again.

Incumbent councilor, Isabelo "Poppo" Cosalan, is also gunning for the congressional seat under the administration ticket of Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who is seen to seek his third and final bid for the mayoral seat even as talk is ripe that he is running for senator this time.

Magalong’s slate with Cosalan, two-termer Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan and city councilors led by incumbent councilor Jose Molintas, are scheduled to file their COCs on the last day of the filing on October 8.

Soledad Go, the wife of incumbent third-term representative Marquez Go, is running for her husband's seat in Congress. Meanwhile, there are rumors that Marquez will compete against Magalong in the mayoral race.

Incumbent Councilor Benny Bomogao, is also reportedly trying his mettle in the congressional race, completing the would be six-cornered congressional fight that could split the over 160,000 Baguio voters.

Meanwhile, Commission on Elections Baguio Election Officer lawyer John Paul Martin is reminding candidates to observe clean social media campaigning. He stressed that no one should use artificial intelligence-generated tools to promote misinformation, disinformation and mal-information. 

"Social media is an avenue, sometimes for your advocacy, pero pwede rin 'yang breeding ground for misinformation at 'yun ang prine-prevent natin during campaign, especially in calling out trolls and Comelec is prepared to strike down these trolls,” Martin said. 

"Meron tayong committee to strike down 'yung mga malicious at voter’s suppression posts that would violate the community’s standards of the social media platforms, in partnership with Meta AI," he added.