Defensor-Tupas tandem for 2019 a done deal

Barotac Viejo Mayor Niel “Beng” Tupas III (left) and Representative Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. (right)

Barotac Viejo Mayor Niel “Beng” Tupas III has accepted the offer to be the vice gubernatorial running mate of Rep. Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. for the 2019 elections.

Defensor, who is running for governor of Iloilo province, said they would officially announce their tandem in the next few days.

Tupas took oath as new member of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP–Laban), the political party of President Rodrigo Duterte, on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, PDP-Laban president, officiated the oath taking of Tupas.

Barotac Viejo Mayor Niel “Beng” Tupas III takes oath as the new member of PDP-Laban before Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, president of the political party.(Photo by Provincial Administrator Raul Banias)

Toto is the son of incumbent Governor Arthur Defensor Sr., who is now serving is third and last term

He will face Representative Ferjenel Biron in the gubernatorial race next year.

Biron has yet to announce his running mate.

On Sept.8, Guimbal Mayor Oscar Garin announced that their family would support the candidacy of Biron.

“We are for Ferj Biron,” he said during the mass oath-taking of Nacionalista Party members in Iloilo and Antique at the Iloilo Convention Center.

The filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) for next year’s midterm elections is scheduled next month.

SOURCE: Iloilo Metropolitan Times

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