Will Bonifacio Peña, brother of Pulupandan Mayor Magdaleno Peña, run for mayor of Moises Padilla town in 2013?

And will Magdaleno run for congressman of the fifth district with his son, lawyer Miguel Peña, running for Pulupandan mayor instead?

The questions were raised as Bonifacio cancelled his voter’s registration record in the municipality of Pulupandan for transfer to Moises Padilla where he said he has established his residence.

Bonifacio, accompanied by Magdaleno Peña, Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez, Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer (Neg. Occ., 4th District), La Castellana Mayor Alberto Nicor and Moises Padilla Vice Mayor Cipriano Remo Jr.. went to the Moises Padilla Commission on Elections Office to submit his application for voters registration yesterday.

However, the COMELEC was unable to process his registration yesterday because of a ban on new registrations in the fifth district during the ongoing election period leading up to the June 2 polls for congressman of the area.

Alvarez said if Bonifacio runs for mayor of Moises Padilla he will support him. “I can chose my friends but I cannot chose my relatives,” said Alvarez, who is the uncle of Bonifacio.

Besides Bonifacio will be good for the people of Moises Padilla and for the development of the town, he said.

The vice governor said he lost in Moises Padilla in the last election.

Magdaleno said his brother was listening to the concerns of the people of Moises Padilla.

Asked if he would also transfer his residency to the fifth district and run for congressman there in 2013, Magdaleno was noncommittal.”We’ll see,” was all he would say.

Meanwhile, residents of Moises Padilla have filed a petition to the incumbent town mayor Francisco Nazareno asking for the restoration of quality drinking water in the area.

The “Concerned Citizens of Moises Padilla” headed Robert Gilongos and Severo Portillo said they signed the petition “due to the continuous public outcry concerning the bad state of the present water supply, which our so called public servants, as they claimed to be, refused to hear or see.”

Nazareno said there is no problem if Bonifacio runs for mayor in Moises Padilla, it’s a free country.

Meanwhile, he said the complaint about the water supply in his town is politically-motivated and has already been answered.,

On the other hand, Elections provincial supervisor Jessie Suarez said that should Magdaleno Peña register to vote in the fifth district while mayor of Pulupandan, that is his prerogative, he cannot be prevented from doing so.

As to whether that would affect his mayorship of Pulupandan, Suarez said that is a matter for the Department of Interior and Local Government to address.*CPG

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