Longtime Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) members have resigned after the party issued a Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance (CONA) for Lea Delfinado to be its 4th District congressional candidate.
Bago Mayor Nicholas Yulo said on Monday, Sept. 30, that he along with Vice Mayor Ramon Torres and three councilors resigned from NPC and have joined the National Unity Party (NUP).
Yulo said they are committed to supporting Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer’s bid for congressman of the 4th District so they decided to resign from NPC since they cannot support its candidate.
Yulo and Torres are also members of the United Negros Alliance (UNegA) of which Ferrer is president.
There is supposed to be an alliance between NPC and NUP yet they fielded another candidate, Yulo said.
Ferrer is the NUP provincial chairman of Negros Occidental.
“They should have respected that alliance” but NPC instead gave Delfinado a CONA, Yulo said.
“We are NPC and there is a candidate for NPC and we don’t support her so we opted to leave the party”, he said.
NPC is the only party he and Torres had been a part of throughout their political careers, Yulo.
Yulo said he has been a member of NPC for about 20 years and Torres has been with the party since its founding by former Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco.
Lisa Cojuangco-Cruz and Claudia Cojuangco, daughter and granddaughter of the NPC founder, handed Delfinado her CONA at the NPC headquarters in Quezon City on Friday.
Cadiz Mayor Salvador Escalante, UNegA secretary general, and Yulo said their coalition with Love Negros is committed to support Ferrer.
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, an NPC and Love Negros member who has also committed to support Ferrer, said he will address the Delfinado issue after the filing of COC period is over.
Rep. Stephen Paduano (Abang Lingkod) said he is committed to support Ferrer.
Meanwhile, Yulo is running for board member of the 4th District and Torres will run for mayor of Bago City in the 2025 polls.*