Another Rodriguez likely to become House member

By NITZ ARANCON, Correspondent

ANOTHER Rodriguez would serve as a member of the House of Representatives if the partylist Abante Mindanao (Abamin) gets enough votes again in next year’s elections.

Abante Mindanao Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr., now the Centrist Democratic Party’s candidate for congressman in the city’s 2nd District, has revealed that his sister Jocelyn is Abamin’s nominee.

Jocelyn, or more known as “Bebot,” is presently the barangay chairperson of Nazareth.

Rodriguez confirmed that it was the consensus during the Oct. 8 Abamin convention at Conchita Hotel that Jocelyn would be the partylist group’s nominee for a House seat. He said Jocelyn beat Virginia Sering of Surigao, Dionesio Caballero, Serio Firmacion, and Erlinda Oras of Cagayan de Oro.

The change in the Abamin nominee was an effect of Rodriguez’s elder brother Rufus’s decision to file his candidacy for mayor, prompting Maximo Jr. to seek the congressional seat in the 2nd District which his brother would be leaving behind.

The Rodriguezes however are not the only family fielding members to various positions in government in this part of the country.

Reelectionist Mayor Oscar Moreno’s younger brother Reynaldo, for instance, is running for congressman in the 1st District of Misamis Oriental. Although Reynaldo’s candidacy is without his support, Mayor Moreno has a record of supporting relatives seeking public office. When he was governor of Misamis Oriental, he fielded his brother Emeterio as a candidate for congressman in the same district.

Moreno also took the son of his political ally 1st District Rep. Rolando Uy, Rainier Joaquin, as his running mate. The Uys have also retained their control of Carmen, the most densely populated and voteich barangay in the 1st District, where Rep. Uy’s wife Lorna is barangay chairperson.

Members of the family of another mayoral candidate, ex-mayor Vicente Emano, are in the political maps of both Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental. Emano’s son Yevgeny Vicente is the reelectionist governor of Misamis Oriental, daughter Nadya is seeking a second office term as Cagayan de Oro councilor, and son-in-law President, another city councilor, is seeking a seat in the provincial board. Their hometown Tagoloan has long been dubbed as an “Emano country.”

Incidentally, the Emanos’ challenger in Misamis Oriental, the family of Villanueva Mayor Julio Uy, has also established their own political dynasty. Uy is running for governor while his wife Juliette is seeking reelection as a congresswoman. Their daughter Jeannie Rosalie Uy is a candidate for mayor in Villanueva.

The Uy family’s biggest political allies in Misamis Oriental are also either establishing or have established their own political dynasties––1st District Rep. Pedro Unabia has fielded his 22-year old son Aaron Paul as a candidate for mayor in Balingoan town while two members of the Guingona family––Mayor Marie Guingona and mother Ruth, an ex-mayor herself––are running for Gingoog’s mayoral and vice mayoral posts, respectively.