PROVINCE’S  FIRST  CONGRESSWOMAN

LINGAYEN–It was a close contest but the more aggressive and determined candidate eventually emerged victorious.

And that was Rachel Arenas, whose campaign in the third district of the province made her presence more felt and her more visible than all her three male opponents.

Arenas, who has become the first woman member of Congress from Pangasinan, was proclaimed by the Provincial Board of Canvassers on the night of May 19 despite a last-ditch effort by the camp of Gallant Soriano to stop it.

“Thank God, it’s all over,” an almost speechless Arenas said to newsmen after her proclamation by the trio of Provincial Elections Supervisor Reddy Balarbar, Provincial Prosecutor Segundino Ferrer and Provincial Schools Superintendent Armando Aquino.

In the final canvass, the 28-year old Harvard-educated Arenas was credited with 62,046 votes, a good 617-vote lead over second-running Generoso Tulagan Jr. who managed to get 61,429 votes.

Balarbar denied a last-minute appeal of the camp of Soriano seeking to stop the inclusion of the remaining certificate of canvass (COC) from San Carlos City into the provincial canvass.

Lawyer Conrado Soriano, counsel of candidate  Soriano, cited alleged incidents of terrorism, vote-buying, point-shaving and bribery of an election officer as his client’s reason  for his last-minute appeal.

But lawyers of Arenas, Aurora Valle and Napoleon Arenas, vigorously opposed Soriano’s motion.

When Soriano tried to reiterate his motion, Balarbar countered that the issues should have been raised earlier during the canvassing of election returns in San Carlos City.

Soriano was advised to raise his appeal before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, then banged the gavel to signify that his ruling was final.

This was met with a thunderous applause from Arenas’ supporters.

The lawyer of Soriano walked out of the canvassing hall in a huff, setting the stage for Arenas proclamation.

Soriano, a former deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Customs, garnered 60,565 votes.

A fourth candidate, Mayor Leocadio de Vera of Bayambang, garnered only 21,009.

Arenas, daughter of philanthropist Rosemary Arenas, ranked third in San Carlos City with 15,056 votes, trailing Tulagan with 20,158 votes and Soriano with 21,180 votes.

However, Arenas walloped her rivals with her 16,623 votes in her hometown of Malasiqui with Tulagan getting only 8,322 and Soriano, 3,936 only. It was her big lead in Malasiqui that ensured her victory.—LM

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