The purely party issue tossed to the Law Department of the Commission on Elections in Manila as to who between Gov. Erico Aumentado and Trinidad Mayor Judith Cajes is the official candidate of the Lakas-Kampi CMD for congressman in the second district was reportedly resolved over the week. Although official copies of the en banc resolution of the poll body are yet to be received by the contesting parties, unimpeachable sources confirmed to the Post that Aumentado won his case before the Comelec. The governor filed a petition ad cautelam to the Comelec to make his Certificate of Acceptance and Nomination (CONA) uninterrupted after it was reinstated on December 4. Informed of the Comelec decision, the lady mayor contesting Aumentado's official party nomination for second district lawmaker, appeared undaunted.

She said she has crossed her “political Rubicon” and there's no turning back. With Aumentado bagging the Lakas plum in his district, it was understood that Cajes will run as an independent. According to the same reliable sources, the poll body adopted Aumentado's arguments in filing the petition ad cautelam. The main argument was that after Aumentado's CONA was reinstated it became a matter of party representation and therefore a party concern. Earlier, Prospero Pichay, secretary, office of political affairs, and chair of the arbitration committee appealed to Comelec chair Jose Melo to act on the early resolution of the petition ad cautelam. The petition sought to declare and recognize the uninterrupted validity of the CONA of Aumentado for the position of second district representative. Another ground cited by Aumentado was that the petition was filed within the substitution period.

INTERESTING SIDEBAR

One interesting sidebar of the Aumentado-Cajes second district congressional showdown was the torrid verbal exchange involving the dreaded Kuratong Baleleng. During the initial salvo, the governor dropped broad hints of a top second district official of having brought Kuratong Baleleng goons in Bohol to help in the electoral aspirations of his wife. Feeling alluded to, Cong. Roberto Cajes turned the tables on Aumentado, and accused the governor of behind the Kuratong presence in Bohol. The swapping of charges involving the Kuratong issue still hangs in the balance and nobody can claim who is on the upper hand. With the contesting parties raring to go come hell or high water, the spectacle of a tit for tat becomes the order of the day, and there's no telling that the hot verbal tussle will end up with the two erstwhile allies turned mortal enemies smoking the peace pipe. But with the two protagonists spewing already a lot of rhetorical lava, a peace pact is far from being within striking distance.