GOVERNOR Loreto Leo Ocampos, in his yet another bid to take foothold in vote-rich Ozamiz City, is fielding second councilor Maria Constancia “Connie” Lim for mayor in next year’s elections.
This comes to pass after Ocampos declared he is running for congressman in the second district of Misamis Occidental during Lim’s birthday bash, Sept. 19, at the Medina Gymnasium.
Lim, wearing her trademark pink dress, stood on the pulpit set up on a makeshift stage and bellowed US President Barack Obama's “Change we can believe in” campaign plea and said she will effect change in Ozamiz when she becomes mayor.
With this development coming too soon as expected, Lim is set to square off in 2010 with fellow councilwoman and first councilor Nova Princess Echavez, Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog’s daughter.
June this year, the mayor intimated to media that he is fielding Nova for mayor as he makes his three-year respite from politics, having started ten years ago as ABC federated president then rising as the city’s chief executive and completing three terms.
Both Echavez and Lim belong to the merged Lakas CMD-Kampi administration party, which splintered between into the camp of Ocampos and that of Rep. Herminia Ramiro, to whom the Parojinogs pledged loyalty and who recently said she will run for governor next year.
Last March, 11 out of the 14 municipal mayors of the province and one city mayor bolted the Lakas-Kampi coalition and took their oath of allegiance to former Senate President Manny Villar’s Nationalista Party.
Two big political figures who led the party switch from Lakas into NP are former 1st District Rep. and incumbent Plaridel mayor Ernie Clarete and Vice Gov. Francisco Paylaga Jr., who wants the gubernatorial seat soon to be vacated by Ocampos.
Left in the Lakas CMD-Kampi are Ramiro, Parojinog and Jennifer Wee Tan of Tangub City along with Mayors David Navarro of Clarin, Samson Dumanjug of Bonifacio and Don Victoriano’s Annabel Hamoy.
Last August, a rift between Ocampos and Parojinog started to show again after the Provincial Capitol released a statement saying Parojinog and his councilors were denied membership in the newly merged Lakas CMD-Kampi when the mayor and his councilors by-passed party rules and went straight to Malacanang to take their oaths there.
Fellow Lakas member and Ozamiz vice mayor Carlos Patricio Bernad, in a radio interview then, said the report is not true since they were only meeting the president and no membership oath-taking ever happened.
Last Saturday, Ramiro turned the tables on Ocampos when she told media in a conversation inside her residence that the governor is exercising a “one-man rule” when he endorsed Paylaga as “future governor” during Lim’s birthday bash.
A seemingly angry Ramiro added that Ocampos cannot just endorse anybody since there is yet no official declaration from the party and that such a situation in Misamis Occidental is yet to be decided upon by their party’s arbitration committee.
And if ever the matter is decided upon by Lakas-Kampi at the appointed time or if hell breaks loose, Ramiro, a staunch Arroyo supporter, curtly said she is the standard bearer for governorship in the province.
REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA