Lakas slate in city formed minus Joe

With less than five months in the run up to the May 2007 polls, the battle lines are now drawn in the ruling Lakas party in this city. What was evident in the city slate of Lakas is that it eased out former mayor Jose Torralba from the cohesive group. In one master stroke, the Lakas incumbents dealt the final blow to whatever dreams Torralba had in rebuilding his political fortune after it suffered a debilitating defeat in the last elections. Torralba fielded his own wife to head the Lakas juggernaut in 2004 only to be clobbered by the forces of Dan Lim in a three-cornered fight.

The last straw that broke Torralba's back was the open declaration of the Lakas incumbents that they acknowledged V-Mayor Nuevas Tirol Montes as the highest ranking elected official of the party. Although, there was no sign that Torralba will bolt his own party that catapulted him to power for three consecutive terms, it was understood that he will be left to his own devices in the May polls. This means that he will have to form his own ticket after his former partymates declared in a joint statement that they are now the official Lakas-CMD ticket in this city.

As of yesterday, the so-called official Lakas ticket is without its standard bearer for mayor. The joint statement signed by V-Mayor Montes, Councilors Leonides Borja, Urbano Lagunay, Oscar Glovasa, Lucio Balbin, George Olario and Danilo Bantugan was released to media yesterday. The slate is awaiting the blessing and imprimatur of Gov. Erico Aumentado, provincial Lakas party chairman. The fate of all other city councilors like Edgar Kapirig and Edgar Bompat given their respective political affiliations is still unknown. The joint declaration virtually shuttered the dreams of Torralba of forming a ticket of what was left of his former group in the ruling party.

But it's not the end of the world for Mayor Joe.

A proven survivor of many political wars in the past dating back to the heydays of the Liberals and the Nacionalistas, the former mayor can spring a surprise by forming his own powerhouse ticket. Talks are ripe that he is grooming for a running mate City Councilor Jose “Toto” Veloso. To some pundits, Veloso may still be wet between the ears, but his relations by affinity to Cong. Edgar Chatto is a big factor that will give any Lakas mayoralty bet a run for his money. f Chatto agrees for a Torralba-Veloso combination, money will run out of the ears of the formidable tandem. This prognosis is based on the premise that Chatto will run unopposed in the first district and therefore the full might of his firepower will be concentrated in this city because an in-law is running for vice mayor.

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