BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Earlier yesterday, Benitez also nixed rumors that he and several officials here will meet to discuss their first-round draft picks for the 2025 mid-term polls.
“We should have less politics and more of governance,” Benirez told reporters here on the sidelines of the S&R opening yesterday, 8 April 2024, where he was the honored guest of the members-only warehouse retailer.
Also yesterday, his publicist, lawyer and village chief Caesar Distrito released a pair of photos showing Benitez in a duofie with Franz Tionco, the daughter of Cong. Greg Gasataya who is chief of Mansilingan village, and another with Gasataya himself.
Distrito said the duofies or the image of two persons taken by the mobile phone holder were snapped by Benitez himself as the Gasatayas and him were waiting for the arrival of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr for a power backbone switch on at the Mansilingan substation of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
Cong. Gasataya bolted from the former dominant party Grupo Progreso of then Mayor Evelio Leonardia and later allied himself with Benitez after a brief period as an independent candidate.
Some observers told DNX Gasataya’s alliance with Benitez provided with additional political stock to win over Leonardia with more than 60,000 votes.
Speculations are rife over the alliance of the two as Gasataya is ending his first straight nine-year term of three three-year periods thst disqualifies him for seeking a fresh one as lone district solon.
Benitez however is just finishing a first three-year term and had already said he has four options, later modified to five by Distrito.
Two of those options include taking part in the elections either by switching seats with Gasataya or runnimg for a second term.
The other two involves national positions and one is taking a political pause.
The alliance is “strong” and “the same tandem comes 2025 elections (sic),” Distrito said when asked what the photos indicate.
Asked if this also means that Franz Tionco woukd be Gasataya’s pick to run in his stead, Distrito said in a separate message to DNX: “Mayor Albee said, unless there will be a switching between Cong Greg as Mayor and he as congressman, the choice of Cong Greg to run for Congressman is for him to decide.”
Distrito had earlier said Benitez had already declared that he is leaving to Gasataya the decision whom to pick as his replacement to run im his stead.
The political grapevine is rife with talk that Gasataya will chlose Tionco.
Gasataya, however, is not yet available for comment.
