NEGROS Occidental Second District Board Member Salvador Escalante Jr. on Wednesday, September 12, said the result of the unification talks between their party and rival Love Negros was to field incumbent Vice Governor Eugenio Jose "Bong" Lacson for governor and former Fourth District Representative Jeffrey Ferrer for vice governor in the 2019 elections.
Escalante, secretary-general of United Negros Alliance (Unega), said the unification talks have been ongoing for the past two weeks, adding that it seems that leaders from both parties have reached a final decision with regard to the proposed political merger.
"But I don't want to preempt. The official announcement will be final within the week," he said.
Both parties have been working on a Lacson-Ferrer tandem.
"Unega has been acceptable for the merger but the governor will officially announce it," he said.
Meanwhile, Lacson said, "there was already a choice for 2019. I can only confirm for Love Negros and it's me for the governor and if Board Member Escalante says that their nominee will be Congressman Ferrer, I guess that is a gospel truth also."
The merger will likely to happen, he added.
"But anything can happen from yesterday until the filing of the certificate of candidacy which was moved back to October 11 to 17. It is now clearer now compared to last month," he said.
There are also areas that merger is not possible, thus, we cannot call this a perfect merger, he added.
Meanwhile, Third District Representative Alfredo Benitez will continue to help Negros Occidental in a private capacity.
He will not run on any elective post but assured the Negrenses that he can help the province more being a private citizen, said Escalante.
Benitez signified that he will take a break, he becomes the top choice of Love Negros, he said.
