A determined Manila Congressman Benjamin Asilo (District 1-Tondo) rejected former mayor Alfredo Lim’s suggestion that he gives up his vice mayoralty bid “because his ratings are not going up.”
“I have great respect for Lim. I hold him in high esteem. But for me to quit the vice mayoralty contest, as he earlier proposed, will never happen. Simply put, I am continuing my campaign and victory is almost certain. I am in great form in the midst of a great fight. My chances of winning are getting brighter and stronger everyday,” Asilo, now on his third and final term as Tondo’s representative in Congress, told The Standard.
Lim and Asilo are the official candidates of the dominant Liberal party for mayor and vice mayor, respectively.
Lim, who was first elected mayor and served for two terms from 1992 to 1998 and then made a successful comeback and yet served another two terms from 2007 to 2013, asked Asilo to step down because he said he believed that his partnership with another vice mayoralty aspirant, Councilor Ali Atienza “is more appealing to city voters and winnable.”
“With all due recognition to Asilo as the LP president in Manila, I still think that he should give way to Atienza to ensure our victory. Atienza is up the ladder when it comes to the ratings war,” Lim claimed.
However, there lies a twist in Lim’s proposal.
The young Atienza, the son of former mayor Lito Atienza, is not a member of LP and is the official running mate of another mayoralty hopeful, Congressman Amado Bagatsing (District 5), the son of the former mayor Ramon Bagatsing who served city hall from 1971 to 1986.
Asilo said he would call an emergency meeting of LP-Manila that will have in attendance the party’s candidates for congress-committee the official report/minutes of the said meeting.
“I hope that the executive committee, composed of, among others, President Benigno Aquino, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Senate President Franklin Drilon, and DBM Secretary Florencio Abad, will immediately come out with a ruling or a decision to settle the issue with finality, considering that there is only less than a week before the elections on May 9,” Asilo added.
As this developed, so-called “sympathy endorsements” backing up Asilo’s quest to be the next vice mayor, are pouring in his headquarters in Pritil, Tondo.
Various sectors of voters, including vendors, transport drivers, teachers and other professionals, student organizations, plain housewives and informal settlers, LGBT groups, policemen and city hall employees are now actively campaigning for an Asilo victory, according to Jade Daquiz, a close political ally of Asilo and an LP-Manila bet for councilor in District 1 (Tondo).
The same kind of “sympathy endorsements” are also being “harvested” by Bagatsing, who is also considered “a political victim” of Lim’s unhealthy commentary.
“Look like Lim’s ‘trash remark’ is turning to a sort of blessing in disguise for both Bagatsing and Asilo. That’s a lot of votes for them,” Daquiz added.
