Partido Abe Kapampangan, a local political party in Angeles City, on Thursday endorsed Clark International Airport Corp. President Alex Cauguiran as their mayoralty bet for the May 2019 polls.
In a statement sent to iOrbitnews, Partido AbeKa said Cauguiran got the nod of the party in an “emotionally-filled” general assembly held in Barangay Balibago this city.
“The party endorsed Alex and will support him to become the next mayor of Angeles,” Jae Flores, incumbent city councilor and newly elected party vice president, said.
Flores added that Cauguiran was given full authority through a party resolution to form the party’s slate for the May 2019 local election.
Cauguiran has yet to announce the names of his vice mayor and councilors.
The party, identified as a “multisector grassroots mass organization,” was the same machinery founded by Cauguiran that catapulted incumbent Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan to the city hall in 2013 and 2016.
“Some people from the Pamintuan circle actually attempted to unseat me from the party (but a) vast majority of the members prevailed. We will lead Angelenos and, hopefully, I will not fail them,” Cauguiran said.
Around 500 card-bearing party leaders representing the city’s 33 barangays and various sectors held the general assembly to elect the new set of officers headed by Cauguiran who retained his position as party president.
Pamintuan was reelected as party chairman amid his controversial declaration to support the incumbent vice mayor, Brian Nepomuceno, a scion of one of the city’s wealthiest families.
Cauguiran said that with or without Pamintuan’s support, the party reelected the mayor as its chairman “in honor of his outstanding leadership to the city. ”
Cauguiran is the former chief of staff of Pamintuan.
“Alex founded the party, he nurtured and strengthened it to become what it is today,” newly elected party vice chairperson and former city councilor Marang Morales said, adding that Cauguiran was to become the obvious choice of the party because of his significant role in it.
Cauguiran is the current president of the Clark International Airport Corp (CIAC) and is widely credited for the increased flights and passenger volume of the previously ignored airport.
Partido AbeKa is the ruling political prty of Angeles City.