CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “No vice mayor, no final line-up yet. I will announce it formally when all is completed.”
Thus said Vice Mayor Edwin Santiago on Friday after he was asked by Punto if he had announced that Councilor Renato “Ato” Agustin will be his vice mayor for the 2013 elections.
On his birthday celebration on Thursday, Santiago led a medical mission and outreach program in Barangay San Pedro Cutud. He was seen raising the hands of Agustin and incumbent and aspiring councilors allied with him.
“We were raising our hands to show solidarity and celebrate our common desire to serve the people, especially the poor ones,” said Santiago in the dialect.
Asked if he chose Agustin as his running-mate, Santiago said “of course everyone is welcome and is being considered, including Councilor Agustin.”
Santiago said he was in San Pedro Cutud to render public service and “not campaign too early because it’s still a long way to go before the scheduled election.”
The three-term vice mayor said Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez had given him the liberty to choose his own line-up, including his vice mayor.
“I think you should start to go out because the other challengers had announced their plans to run and began to campaign,” said Santiago, quoting r Rodriguez.
In a press conference last Tuesday, former Mayor Rey B. Aquino declared his intent to run for mayor anew in 2013 and presented eight councilors in his line-up.
Aquino said the position of vice mayor was still vacant, “as we have to choose yet from a number of applicants.”
It could be recalled that Rodriguez has been endorsing the tandem of Santiago and Councilor Jimmy Lazatin for next year’s election. The three-term mayor made the announcement in his speech last month.
Only last Monday, during the flag ceremonies, city employees heard Rodriguez publicly endorsed Santiago and Lazatin as his choices for mayor and vice mayor respectively.
On the reports of Santiago having allegedly made his choice in Agustin as his vice mayor, Lazatin said: “I have no comment.”
Santiago said his partial list of councilors included incumbent Councilor Lito Ocampo, former Councilor Bernie Castro, Dolores Barangay Chairman Melchor Caluag and Allan Patio, president of the kagawads’ association in this city and brother of three-term councilor Alex Patio.
“As you can see, how can anybody say our line-up is complete when we can’t name all the ten councilors in our line-up yet,” said Santiago.
Allies of Santiago said former councilor and current City Engineer Nelson Lingat and City Administrator Engr. Fer Caylao are also being considered in their line-up.
