Tagum City Mayor Allan Rellon is gamely cool to the reported plan of Compostela Valley ex-Governor and now senior Board Member Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy to run for mayor against him in 2019 polls.
In press interview at his office Tuesday, Mayor Rellon said “let it be” if Uy would run against him per reports of local media.
His statement came following PDP-Laban’s mass oathtaking events in Compostela Valley and in Davao del Norte on Monday.
The mass oathtaking pushed by Speaker Bebot Alvarez and Senate President Koko Pimentel, who personally attended the two political rites, turned out to have put strange bedfellows altogether as Rellon and Uy are now considered partymates though they have different provinces.
Rellon in last year’s polls defeated Uy’s younger brother ex-Mayor Rey T. Uy in what was billed as the tightest mayoral race in Tagum’s history with Rellon’s slim margin of over 2,000 votes. That, after he first knocked out Rey Uy’s son ex-Councilor Oyo in 2013 mayoral race with Rellon’s wide margin of close to 22,000 votes.
Most of the 23 barangay captains in the city who are Uy supporters swore in as new PDP-Laban members, thus associating them with Rellon and the majority of councilors who ran and won under PDP-Laban last year.
As to PDP-Laban’s oathtaking flurry, Rellon said it is taking all to join the party.
But he said in jest he would forget being a politician and would do a “Duterte style.”
He added he might just rest on the “heart of the people” even as he vowed he would protect his Hugpong Tagumenyo, which has over 30,000 card-bearing members as of press time.
On the other hand, Board Member Uy shrugged off the running talks in town that he would be running for mayor in Tagum City by 2019 polls.
He denied he has a plan to run for mayor while pleading not to talk about politics this time, adding that the question should be rather asked to his younger brother former Mayor Rey T. Uy or to Vice Mayor Boyet Gementiza or to anybody who is qualified to run for mayor.
“It’s too early to talk about politics, and you know politics is very divisive, seloso kaayo ning politika (politics stinks of jealousy),” he said.
But shortly after he said that Tagum is his birthplace and thus originally he has been known to be with Tagum since his childhood in Barangay Madaum, the ancestral barangay of Uy family.
He bared these when he guested Thursday the morning program “Balita sa Barangay ug Kalungsuran” anchored by broadcaster Pat Lucero Pacquiao over Tagum’s 99.9 RPFM.
And being originally associated with Tagum, he added he has abundant bosom and close friends in the city like businessmen, barangay captains, kagawads and others since the days when Tagum was still a municipality.
He admitted though that there have been a lot of businessmen, friends of him who are prodding him to run for city mayor.(mindanaosunchronicle.com/Cha Monforte)
Mindanao Sun Chronicle Online 