Press Release
November 25, 2009

Eusebio, Martirez lead defection to Villar's NP

Pasig City Mayor Robert "Bobby" Eusebio and Vice-Mayor Rosalio "Yoyong" Martirez led the defection from Lakas-Kampi-CMD to Sen. Manny Villar's Nacionalista Party (NP), taking oath before the NP standard-bearer at the Tanghalang Pasigueño in Pasig City.

Eusebio said, "We join the Nacionalista Party because we share its most important advocacy of fighting poverty, under the tested leadership of Sen. Manny Villar, whose track record sets him apart from other presidentiables."

The Pasig mayor cited his family's long-time affiliation with NP, with his father being an original Nacionalista.

Villar said, "We are most grateful for your demonstration of support which further fortifies our efforts at uplifting our country's poor, of which I was one. Having experienced such life makes me able and determined to help our people break out of survival mode."

An architect by profession, Eusebio is the son of former Mayor Vicente "Enteng" Eusebio and former Mayor Soledad Cruz Eusebio. He continued the upliftment projects of his parents, particularly education and infrastructure. Eusebio is married to Maribel Andaya Eusebio, sister of Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya. He initiated the rehabilitation of Pasig public market and the Parian creek, the construction of Javier bridge's additional lanes, among others. Like Villar, he is an alumnus of the University of the Philippines.

Following the event in Pasig was another oathtaking ceremony for over 700 leaders from across the country at the Laurel House in Mandaluyong City led by Asenso Manileño stalwarts and Catanduanes Gov. Joseph Cua from Lakas.

Also leading the NP entrants was a priest of 21 years who will be running for governor of Bukidnon in the 2010 elections. Fr. Diosdado "Dodge" Tabios, 46, who is noted for educating and helping the "lumads" or indigenous people fight for their rights of land ownership in Bukidnon, said, "We want to help change significantly the current troubling social and economic situations in the province molded by past leadership wielding absolute power and leading the people to apathy and hopelessness."

Tabios, a fellow of the Ford Foundation's International Fellowship Program who finished his masters in the Netherlands in December 2008, was a parish priest of Valencia in Bukidnon from 2001 to 2007. He left for the Netherlands in 2007 for his studies. In March this year, he began serving as assistant to the administrator of the San Isidro Cathedral in Malaybalay.

In joining Villar's NP, Tabios said, "Aside from his track record, it is Senator Villar who has frequently visited Mindanao and presented his Mindanao agenda as a priority of his leadership among all the presidentiables, which make him our choice."

The NP oathtakers hailed from Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Benguet, Pangasinan, La Union, Aurora, Zambales, Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, Samar, Lanao, and the National Capital Region. Aurora Board Member Mariano Tangson who is running for the gubernatorial post, and Board Members Pedro Ong and Pablo Miran took oath as NP.

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