BALANGA CITY – The electorates in Bataan have spoken. Majority wanted the 4Gs or Gov. Enrique “Tet” Garcia and three children while rejecting the 4Ps or former Bases Conversion Development Authority chairman Felicito “Tong” Payumo, his one son and two nephews.
The elder Garcia bagged the congressional post in the second district vacated by son Rep. Albert Garcia who was elected governor. Balanga City Mayor Jose Enrique Garcia, another son, was reelected. Gila Garcia, a daughter, becomes the new mayor of Dinalupihan.
The elder Payumo was defeated for the second time by Garcia’s teammate re-electionist Rep. Herminia Roman in the first district. Tong was undefeated former three-term congressman of the first district until he became chairman/administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
After his six-year stint as SBMA chairman, Tong came back to the political scene but lost in 2007 to newcomer Herminia Roman, wife of former congressman Tony Roman whom Payumo eased out in his first try for a congressional seat.
Tong’s eldest son, Tonito, a Harvard graduate and tennis champion, lost to the group of Garcia, failing in his first bid to get a seat in the five-man provincial board.
Dinalupihan Mayor Joel Payumo, Tong’s nephew, lost to Albert Garcia in the gubernatorial contest. Provincial board member and former Mayor Jose “Jojo” Payumo III, another nephew and brother of Joel, was knocked out by Gila Garcia in the mayoralty race in Dinalupihan.
Tet defeated former Gov. Leonardo “Ding” Roman, ally of Payumo, for the second district seat.
What surprised many and will long be remembered in Bataan’s political history was the defeat of a Payumo in Dinalupihan by someone who moved in from Balanga City and established residence in the only landlocked town in the province.
The Payumos have lorded over the political arena in Dinalupihan for decades, transferring mayorship from one kin to another.
