MALOLOS CITY—A gubernatorial candidate in Bulacan was removed from the list of candidates for the 2013 election, while two others dropped out of the race.
However, one of the candidates who withdrew was substituted by the incumbent president of the Philippine Councilors’ League in the province.
Lawyer Elmo Duque, provincial election supervisor in Bulacan, said Jaime Almera, an independent gubernatorial candidate, was removed from the list.
This came as the Commission on Election (Comelec) Law Department ruled on apparent nuisance candidates.
Duque said Almera was one of the seven apparent nuisance candidates in the province interviewed by his office weeks after they filed their certificate of candidacy (CoC) in the first week of October.
Earlier, Almera issued a statement that he was withdrawing from the race, but Duque said they have not received formal withdrawal from him until the Comelec issued a ruling on apparent nuisance candidates last week.
The removal of Almera from the list left incumbent Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado with a lone opponent in the May 13 polls.
This is in the person of Ernesto Balite, a retired educator who filed his CoC as an independent candidate.
As this developed, Duque said that two more candidates in the province have dropped out from the race by withdrawing their candidacies.
They are Virgilio Caluag, an independent candidate for the municipal councilor position in Pulilan town and Annabelle Tibay, a candidate for municipal councilor in Guiguinto town.
However, Tibay was substituted by Councilor Ariel Arceo, the incumbent president of PCL-Bulacan who serves an ex-officio Board Member in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
In an interview, Arceo said that he delayed his entry to the local polls because he was waiting for Comelec accreditation of his father’s party-list group where he is one of the nominees.
Earlier, Paombong Mayor Donato Marcos, the president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) and 11 others including five mayoral candidates in Bulacan withdrew their candidacies.
The other candidates who withdrew their candidacies are Pancho Ordanes, an independent candidates for the second congressional district of Bulacan; lawyer Rustico De Belen, an independent mayoral candidate in the mountain town of Donya Remedios Trinidad; Rolando Flores and Pablo Milan, both independent candidates for mayor in the town of Baliwag and the city of Meycauayan, respectively; Reynaldo Santos, the incumbent vice mayor of Hagonoy who filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) last October for mayor under the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) banner; and Carla Paula Galvez Tan, the incumbent mayor of San Ildefonso town who earlier filed here COC with endorsement from the National Unity Party(NUP).
Others who withdrew their candidacies are candidates for the municipal councilor’s position in their towns, namely Romeo Rodriguez (Independent, Baliwag), Modesto Espinoza and Kris Blas Ople San Jose who filed files their COC in October in Hagonoy, Leandro Celedonio of Pandi and Erlinda Sigua of the City of San Jose Del Monte.
