• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson reiterated on Wednesday that the congressional bid of Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer in the Fourth District of Negros Occidental has the support of the Love Negros and United Negros alliance, in response to questions on the move of the Nationalist People’s Coalition to field a candidate against the latter in the 2025 midterm elections.
“That’s basically the status right now,” Lacson, a member of the NPC, said.
The Love Negros – UNegA coalition in Negros Occidental is composed of members of the NPC, Lakas-CMD, National Unity Party, and Partido Federal ng Pilipinas.
On Day 1 of the filing of Certificates of Candidacy on October1, Bago City Mayor Nicholas Yulo announced that he and Vice Mayor Ramon Torres have resigned from NPC, the political party they had been affiliated with for more than two decades.
Their reason was that NPC fielded a candidate to challenge the bid for the Fourth District congressional seat of Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer, whom they support, in the person of Lea Delfinado, a former regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highways-Western Visayas.
“That’s their call and decision. I think they have a reason for that,” Lacson said.
The governor said he will issue a statement on such issues after the Oct. 8 filing of COCs.
Yulo and Torres, who had been members of the NPC for 20 years and 33 years, respectively, have instead joined Ferrer in the National Unity Party (NUP).
Aside from being a member of the NUP, Ferrer is also the president of United Negros Alliance (UNegA), which has been in a coalition with Love Negros since the 2019 elections.
Aside from Lacson, other NPC members in Negros Occidental are Representatives Mercedes Alvarez of the Sixth District and Gerardo Valmayor Jr. of the First District, along with several mayors.*
