Mabatid: I have support from OPAV, Palace

Mabolo, Cebu City Barangay Captain Prisca Niña Mabatid remains confident in her quest as an independent candidate for the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) presidency because of the support of the Office of the President.

For Mabatid, the support of the Office of Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) is the same as the support she is getting from the Office of the President.

“OPAV (Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas), OP (Office of the President) they're one. I have their support,” she earlier told reporters.

Mabatid said she did not offer money to her supporters. Instead, in a talk with reporters when she filed her candidacy, she promised projects funded by the national government.

Mabatid has been announcing Malacañang support on several occasions in the past weeks.

Mabatid had said Malacañang promised her 20 police escorts. Reports quoted Cebu City Police Office as having received a verbal order from OPAV about the police escorts. However, the police can provide two police escorts to even senators.

Mabatid is running against Barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City Captain Franklyn Ong who is reportedly backed by fellow barangay captains in Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) in Monday's ABC elections.

With 51 of the 80 barangay captains in Cebu City allied with BOPK, Ong is confident he will get the numbers come election day.

Whoever wins as ABC president will sit as exofficio member of the City Council.

As of now, the opposition enjoys a slim majority as Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, who presides over the session, will break the 9-9 deadlock.

If Ong wins, BOPK will get back the majority in the Council with 10 members while the opposition, excluding Labella, will have eight.

If Mabatid wins, however, the numbers will remain 9-9.

ZAFRA ADVICE

The outgoing ABC president has urged his colleagues to vote according to their conscience and not of influence amid claims of several offers and bribes leading to the ABC elections tomorrow, July 30.

ABC president and Tisa Barangay Chairman, Philip Zafra, is hopeful that barangay captains will vote with integrity and choose whoever they think deserves the top ABC positions.

“But for me, we belong to one association… This is not all about parties. This is not all about personalities. This is all about the Association of Barangay Councils, what the candidates plan for every barangay and what they wanted to pursue for the barangays,” he told reporters.

He asked all the barangay captains to be firm on their moral sense since at the end of the day, what matters most is to attain the common good for the constituents.

Zafra admitted hearing allegations that barangay captains are being bribed.

He, however, refused to comment as for him, the barangay captains have already decided whom to vote.