DESPITE his ailments, Cebu Provincial Board (PB) Member Arleight Sitoy said he won’t withdraw his candidacy for mayor in Cordova town.
“It is not true that I may change course and withdraw,” he told Cebu Daily News yesterday.
Sitoy was admitted to Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu City last Monday evening due to a bleeding cyst in his kidney.
Sitoy said this wasn’t the first time the cyst has bled and that it wasn’t a cause for alarm because the growth was benign.
However, he said he is careful with his diet and avoids lifting heavy weights.
Possibility
“That will not, in any way, make me change my mind,” he said, referring to his candidacy.
Sitoy said that doctors won’t remove his cyst at the moment because he had heart bypass surgery in September last year.
As of yesterday afternoon, Sitoy said he still felt a little pain in his back which his doctor said was caused by the ruptured cyst.
He will be discharged from the hospital within this week, he said.
Sitoy will run against his sister, Cordova Vice Mayor Mary Therese Sitoy-Cho and Malayan Integrated Industries Corp. President Pablo Villaber.
Principle
Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy, the board member’s father, said he prefers Cho to succeed him because his son has “physical limitations.”
But the younger Sitoy said he can still perform his duties despite his disabilities.
He referred to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who declared victory over cancer and is running for president in 2016.
“We’re talking here of principle-centered leadership that we should exemplify to the people so that they will follow,” Sitoy said.
The LP in Cordova favored Cho over him and so he jumped to the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), saying he is more comfortable with the group.