Claver is MP-LP Chair, not Dalog

By Gina Dizon

BONTOC, Mountain Province – Former provincial vice governor Louis Claver shall remain as provincial Liberal Party chairman while Rep. Maximo Dalog shall have status as LP member.

This, following a meeting with national LP leaders who discussed issues related to the membership of Dalog to the administration party without the provincial LP’s endorsement.

LP rules provide the endorsement of the provincial LP body before anyone interested to become a member shall be accepted by the national selection board.

Claver relayed that the inclusion of Dalog is an exception to the rule considering the LP’s move to strengthen the Party which now has 74 members to the 250-member House of Representatives and four in the Senate’s 24 seats.

Lakas-Kampi leads the highest 90 seats in Congress and four in the Senate.

Dalog took his oath as Liberal Party member on June 25 this year along with other 23 defectors who ran as Lakas-Kampi bets in the recent elections.

Meantime, it was learned that Ifugao Rep. Theodore Baguilat was the one who endorsed Dalog to the LP membership.

Claver relayed the LP’s statement that the incident shall serve as a “lesson not to be repeated again.”

Municipal LP coordinator Salvador Liked said Baguilat should not be interfering in province-related matters without consulting the provincial LP as a common protocol.

Earlier, a separate protest from Liked in his letter to LP Chairman Emeritus Jovito Salonga asked that Dalog be reconsidered in his membership noting cases of alleged corruption involving the congressman in relation to the Liberal Party’s ideals of social justice.