BAGUIO REP. MARK, SOL GO SHOOT FOR THE MOON WITH UNPRECEDENTED ATTEMPT TO WIN MAYORALTY, CONGRESSIONAL SEATS

December 14, 2024 Headlines

BAGUIO CITY

No A for Baguio, In the Cordillera, only Abra and Apayao have members of one family hold a position at the same time. Abra has two Valera families – not related – as the icons. The late Vicsyd and wife Zita were congressman and
governor at the same time. This time, Gov. Dominic Valera is the prime politician of the province, with his daughter
and former Gov. Joy Valera – Bernos as vice governor. His wife, Mila, is the mayor of Bangued, while his grandson,
Joy’s son, Joaquin Bernos, is Bangued vice mayor. The grandson is the nephew of recent Abra congressman,
Joseph Sto. Nino, whose wife, Menchie Beronilla Bernos is now the incumbent.

Gov. Valera’s son, Joseph is the mayor of Pidigan also. The Buluts of Apayao have dominated politics there since its separation from Kalinga in 1995. Elias Sr. started the trend and his son Elias, Jr. and Leonor Begtang have both
become congressman and governor. In Benguet, the late Gov. and Rep. Nestor Fongwan, Sr. had two of his children elected as officials. Son and namesake Nestor Jr. was a La Trinidad councilor and in 2019 was president of the Philippine Councilor League – Benguet chair and so he got a seat in the provincial board. Daughter Rose Kepes was elected to the provincial board in 2022, when Nestor Jr. ran for mayor of the capital town. Nestor, Jr., however, lost.

Fongwan, Sr. was elected congressman in 2019, but died months later into his first term, thus a caretaker congressman was sent to Benguet – then ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Go Yap, who now runs for the second time with Gov. Melchor Diclas and Fongwan-Kepes as running mates. The siblings are running again this coming election with
Fongwan-Kepes seeking the vice governor ’s seat and Nestor, Jr. again running for councilor. In some instances, members of some political clans from Benguet crossed over to Baguio and won. Lawyer Jose and Raul Molintas have won seats, with the latter serving as three term Benguet governor, while Jose won a city council seat in 2007.

In 2010, the two ran as congressman of Baguio and governor of Benguet, respectively. They both lost. But there was one instance when brothers were top officials of Baguio and Benguet, Jaime and Andres Bugnosen in 1988. Jaime,
however, was elected vice mayor but moved up to the mayor’s seat when faith healer turned politician Ramon Labo,
Jr. was ousted from office due to citizenship issue. Magalong is expected to have a tough time against Rep, Mark,
while Soledad will be battling Vergara for the congressional post in what many dub as “battle of supermoms.” They,
however, face former Reps. Nicasio Aliping, Jr. and Mauricio Domogan.

There is also councilor Isabelo Cosalan, Jr., is running along with Magalong and the Good Governance group. He is an Ibaloy and whose family is one of the more prominent in Baguio and Benguet. His father is a former regional director of the Department of Communications. His father’s brother, Victor is a former regional director of the Bureau of Lands and one time mayor of Tublay. His uncle is former five-time Benguet Congressman Ronald Cosalan, whose father was the former Baguio-Benguet Congressman. He who segregated the congressional districts of Baguio and Benguet and co-authored Republic Act 4695 in 1966 that divided the old Mountain Province to four different
provinces.

Voting and Go Forth and Multiply The female Go has been touted the strongest of those running for Congress. She has been said to have hit the “campaign trail” in 2016 when her husband was first elected. She had been there when a family is in need, especially in times of disasters like typhoons, fires and offered help. One time at the famous media
watering hole, Luisa’s Café along Session Road, a group of elderlies raised their praise for the female Go, who has been a boon for elderlies and said that they will be voting for her come election day. But locals, especially the Ibaloys say they will support Cosalan in the effort to reverse the new City Charter where they said that it will benefit the
Gos who they compare to the Villar couple.

“We will be helping Poppo (Cosalan) since many of those lands are our ancestral land claims,” said the Baguio voter
who asked this writer not to be named. The Go couple running for congressman and mayor is never heard of in Baguio or in the Cordilleras except in Abra and Apayao, but if they pull it off, then it would start a precedent where political dynasties are allowed in a local government unit where “gawis” or benefits must be shared and not to be enjoyed by a single family.

Pigeon Lobien/ABN