An unusual election

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Tomorrow our province, Negros Occidental, will see a very unusual election that will take place in the Fifth District to choose the man who will serve the remaining year of the term allotted to the late Congressman Ignacio Arroyo.

Arroyo died in January this year after a long struggle against liver cancer. At the time of his death, he was already serving his third and last term as congressman of the district that covers five towns and a city in the southern part of the province. Despite the concerns of some members of the bar that there is too little time left both to prepare for and hold an election, and also for whoever is chosen, to serve, the Commission on Election had seen fit to hold one to ensure that the district continues to be represented.

And so the holding of the election was approved, and the date set is tomorrow, June 2, 2012. Voters from the local government units will proceed to the voting precincts to cast their votes and determine who will represent them in the House of Representatives for a period that will be less than a year, before another election, the regular one, comes along.

Another unusual thing about this election is that it will be pitting members of the same clan in the area. The two contenders, Mayor Alejandro Mirasol of Binalbagan, and Sanggunian Panlalawigan Member Emilio Yulo, who represents the district in the provincial board, are uncle and nephew to each other, and, as in so many other cases all over the country, the family is now divided in their allegiance to their two member candidates.

Let us hope, however, that both will stick to the terms of the peace covenant that they have signed in the presence of the Governor, the COMELEC official, and a representative of the Police. Let us also pray that any wounds that this rift will cause within the family to which both contenders belong, will be healed as quickly as possible, considering that the two have declared that they are only for the good of the constituency to whom they are offering their services.*