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Iloilo City ? The ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party here splintered further yesterday after a close ally of President Macapagal-Arroyo declared his plan to run for mayor of Iloilo City against chief presidential legal counsel Raul Gonzalez and another administration official.
In an assembly attended by hundreds of his supporters yesterday, Larry Jamora, presidential assistant for water, said he would definitely file his candidacy for mayor against Gonzalez and Vice Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, who also belongs to the administration coalition.
Jamora, whose family owns commercial and other properties here, was the chairman of Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) in the city before it merged with Lakas-CMD.
?The President was aware of my plans but she did not intercede to settle who will be the administration's official candidate here,? Jamora said in an interview yesterday.
He said he was not resigning from Lakas-Kampi-CMD and would be open to an arbitration process within the party.
But Jamora said running as an independent or joining other political parties was an option if he is not chosen as the official candidate and is in effect expelled from the party.
Jamora recalled that in 2004, he also wanted to run for mayor but was dissuaded by the President to preserve the unity of the administration camp in the city.
?I agreed to step aside then because the President herself was a candidate but it's a different story now,? he said.
While he said he has no animosities with Gonzalez and his son and namesake Iloilo Rep. Raul Gonzalez Jr., Jamora said he believed that the administration should not limit its candidates to members of just one family.
?I feel that he (Gonzalez) should rest at his age, which obviously he doesn't believe in,? Jamora said.
The Gonzalezes have repeatedly said that they were unfazed by their political rivals and were banking on their influence over most of the city's 180 barangay captains. inquirer
