Roging Dadivas maintains loyalty to LP
ROXAS CITY – Former 1st District Rep. Rodriquez “Roging” Dadivas strongly denied that he jumped ship to the Nationalista Party (NP) of Sen. Manny Villar saying that he is still loyal to Liberal Party (LP) where he belongs.
Dadivas, who filed his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for congressman as LP independent, told The News Today (TNT) that many other parties want to get him but he turned down because he is still loyal to the party which supported him since the start of his political career.
The former congressman claimed that his congressional bid is gaining ground since his supporters since the time he was still congressman signified their support for him.
“I’m banking on my performance, so to speak, as my allies and supporters remember me for what I have done for the good of my constituents in terms of projects,” Dadivas said.
Dadivas, who is the father of reelectionist City Vice Mayor Ronnie Dadivas, an LP bet, is facing reelectionist Rep. Antonio del Rosario and Vice Mayor Felipe Barredo of Ugyon Kita Capiz (UKC).
Asked about insinuations that he will back out from the race, the former 1st district congressman reiterated that there will be no turning back, no retreat no surrender in his running for congressional race.
“If I’ll do it, then, I have no face to show to anybody especially my constituents who may lose respect on me,” he added.
Earlier, Dadivas said that he filed his COC because he was promised by Sen. Mar Roxas’s ally Mr. Emmanuel “Tawi” Billones and Mrs. Judy Araneta Roxas (mother of Sen. Roxas) to prepare himself to run for congressman since incumbent 1st District Cong. Antonio del Rosario will slide down to run as city mayor.
However, Billones and Mrs Roxas vehemently denied promising Dadivas of congressional slot.
“It was clear that what I told him was if Cong. Tony will be anointed by the party to run again as city mayor then Dadivas has a big chance to be chosen for congressional bet,” Mrs. Roxas said.
Dadivas, a loyal and good follower of the LP, was asked to quit from seeking reelection in 2007 in favor of Rep. Del Rosario. As a reward for his decision, his son Ronnie Dadivas, a first termer city councilor was elevated by the party to run as vice mayor and won.
He also said aside from the pledge to be anointed again in the congressional race, he run for Congress to finish his “unfinished business” once elected.
He cited the projects that need to be finished such as three stories building at Taft Street where he proposed to have a public library and computers for students, DepEd Division office in Banica, Roxas City, 2,000 scholars whose studies were discontinued after he quit and several others.
Dadivas also mentioned that during his term as congressman he passed three bills which became laws such as Republic Act (RA) 9272, an act to declare April 15th as President Manuel Roxas Day; RA 9273, an act converting the Capiz State Polytechnic College as Capiz State University (CAPSU) and RA 9374, an act of creating two additional salas at the Roxas City Hall of Justice which helped address the backlog of cases in courts.
