Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. is seeking a fresh mandate as he filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for the May 2022 elections on Friday with Uswag Ilonggo (More Progress Iloilo) and the National Unity Party (NUP) as his regional and national groups, respectively.
Defensor’s COC filing at the provincial office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) here coincided with his 52nd birthday.
“We have a local party (Uswag Ilonggo) now, we want to be guided by this. We formulated our battle cry, the movement for resurgent, progressive, globally competitive, and resilient Iloilo,” he said in an interview.
Defensor said More Progress Iloilo has to be “localized and focused (in the) pursuit of (the) development of the province.”
In September, the Comelec’s second division granted the petition for registration and accreditation of the Uswag Ilonggo Party-list as a regional political party.
The direction of the province will be to increase investment and employment opportunities, food security, accessible health and social services, protection and sustainable management of the resources and assets of the province, and effective, efficient, and transparent government administrative service, he added.
This, he said, could be achieved by being compliant with the law of Ease of Doing Business and seeing concrete items in the budget of the province.
Likewise, the new group is eyeing to see more communal and pump irrigation projects and maximize rice production once the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project II is completed.
Source: Philippines News Agency
