3rd try for Pelaez in mayor’s race
Businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr. won’t let two past election defeats stop him from running again for mayor in Lapu-Lapu City next year.
“This is our third effort to run in Lapu-Lapu…para sa katarungan, kadaugan gyod (for justice, success). Krusada kontra sa kurakot, kontra sa tanang kahiwian sa Lapu-Lapu City (A crusade against corruption, against all anomalies),” said the Liberal Party (LP) member.
Pelaez but lost to incumbent Mayor Paz Radaza in the 2010 and 2013 elections.
Radaza’s husband, former mayor Arturo Radaza ran for Congress and won. When his health declined, he fielded his daughter, Aileen Radaza, who is the city’s lone congressional representative.
In yesterday’s press conference at a Cebu City restaurant, Pelaez didn’t have a vice mayor candidate yet.
But he endorsed economist Rene Espina Jr. as the LP candidate for Lapu-Lapu City’s lone congressional seat.
Espina, son of former senator and former Cebu governor Rene Espina Sr., will go up against Aileen Radaza.
The LP lineup for the Lapu-Lapu City Council includes Jembo Sombilon, Thelma Jumao-as, lawyer Susan Baring, Dr. Mephy Mata and her husband lawyer Rudy Taneo.
Charges
Pelaez said the aspirants are professionals with no “taint of corruption.”
He accused Mayor Radaza and her husband, former mayor and congressman Arturo Radaza of vote buying and corruption in office.
Pelaez cited the 2007 overpriced ASEAN lamp post scam where Arturo Radaza was charged as well as Paz’s pending charge of fraud in relation to the P2.6-billion worth of fictitious loans that led to the closure of the Rural Bank of Subangdaku (RBS) that she used to head.
Pelaez said he would file charges against the mayor for violating the solid waste management law due to her administration’s alleged failure to solve the city’s garbage problem.
In response, Mayor Radaza denied Pelaez’s charges.
She said her administration made significant achievements like securing a Seal of Good Governance and Good Financial Housekeeping from the Department of Interior and Local Government last year.
She said investor confidence in Lapu-Lapu City is high and that 12,000 businesses are operating in the city.
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