BONTOC, Mountain Province – The lone congressional post of the province will be a face off between second generation politicians who trace their roots to the old names in the political arena who dominated the top positions over the past several decades.
Incumbent Rep. Maximo Y. Dalog, Jr., son of former Gov. and former Rep. Maximo B. Dalog, Sr., will be challenged by former Sabangan Mayor Jupiter Dominguez, nephew of the late Assemblyman and Rep. Victor S. Dominguez.
Dalog, Sr. served as the Provincial Governor in 1995-1998 and from 2004-2010. He was then elected as the Representative of Mountain Province to the House of Representatives from 2010-29 but he succumbed to a lingering illness in June 2017. Kalinga Rep. Allen Jesse C. Mangaoang continues the unserved term of the late lawmaker as the legislative caretaker of the province.
On the other hand, the older Dominguez served as an assemblyman of Mountain Province in the Batasan Pambansa before serving his three terms as the Representative of the lone district of Mountain Province from 1988-1998. His late wife Josephine de Castro-Dominguez succeeded him in the same post from 1998-2001. He was able to regain the trust of the voters of Mountain Province when he was elected as Representative of the lone district of Mountain Province in 2004 and was elected for his second term in 2007. However, he succumbed to a lingering illness in February 2008 that paved the way for the late Kalinga Rep. Manuel S. Agyao to serve his remaining term as the province’s legislative caretaker until 2010.
The young Dalog pointed out that the people of Mountain Province witnessed the enormous development over the past several years and that he will leave the matter of deciding on whom to vote for the province’s Representative of the lone district to the electorate in the upcoming May 2022 synchronized national and local elections.
For his part, former Mayor Dominguez wants to offer himself as an alternative choice for the province’s lone congressional post if they already want that there will be significant changes that will be instituted in Mountain Province after the May 2022 elections.
He assured that he will reciprocate voters’ trust and confidence in him with unwavering and uncompromising service that will help in elevating the status of the province once the desired development in the rural areas shall have been achieved with the sufficient assistance from the national government.
Mountain Province has at least 108,000 voters in the 10 municipalities based on the latest figures provided by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) although this number could change after the end of the ongoing registration period on October 30, 2021.
The rivalry of the second-generation politicians for the province’s lone congressional post is considered as interesting after incumbent Gov. Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr. seems to be on the way to victory with the token resistance from those who filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) for the said post. By HENT
