Pamintuan - Alvaro, strong tandem

The hottest news last week was the reported move of former Angeles City mayor now SCADC chairman and presidential assistant Edgardo Pamintuan to the direction of City Hall.

Congressman Tarzan Lazatin (1st district) was reported out of the running for city mayor as earlier predicted. He is inclined to hold on to his present post where he is certainly the man to beat. Expected rival businessman Reghis Romero II may finally contest the district seat with Tarzan, Palace sources intimated in San Fernando last June l2. 

Small and compact as it is the Angeles City community keeps its ears tuned to the latest rumor or gossip. It was not a surprise, therefore, that word leaked out that Pamintuan has been secretly and quietly mobilizing his old political machinery, whose principal cog is former city councilor now City Administrator Irineo “Dr. Bong” Alvaro Ph.D. 

Talk was rampant that an Ed Pamintuan-Bong Alvaro mayoral tandem has been taking shape, sending shivers to the camp of Mayor Blueboy Nepo.
Nepo’s grapevine had snooped on the Pamintuan camp and reported Alvaro in frequent meetings with Sec. Pamintuan. It could be the two had discussed plans for the Independence Day celebration or mundane matters like the campaign in the old days. 

Bong Alvaro quits as city administrator

Dr. Alvaro has been reported as breaking off from this boss, Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno. I had it from a reliable source - and confirmed by Secretary Ed Pamintuan - that Alvaro, indeed, had decided to resign from his post for unmentioned reasons.

A former highly rated city councilor during the term of City Mayor Pamintuan, he was at the center of a controversy in recent weeks when Nepomuceno was subjected to scorching attacks for the salary delay of City Government personnel and for alienating loyal Nepo leaders from the mayor.

As city administrator, the blame for this and other fiascoes that had been shaking the foundation of Nepomuceno’s governance had been laid on Alvaro’s office.

The breaking point was the cessation of support for the mayor by a core group of barangay chairmen, most of them Blueboy’s staunch allies and party mates who complained against mistreatment and neglect by the City Administrator’s Office.

The barangay chairmen who had earlier departed ways from Nepomuceno said the city mayor could still save his leadership from collapsing (politically) if the mayor would also drop two city councilors who were said to be giving him a bad reputation and an unpleasant image.