‘New blood’ to challenge Salceda in Albay congressional contest
Albay politics heating up; has Salceda finally met his match?
A POLITICAL ‘new blood’ has filed his candidacy last October 8, 2021, to challenge Albay second district representative, Joey Salceda in the 2022 national elections.
Accompanied by some of his supporters, Carmelo Redencion dela Torre de Leoz, popularly known as ‘Jun de Leoz,’ said his entry into politics would provide his townmates and the rest of the second district a decent “alternative” and his being a fresh face in politics should be an
“invigorating force” in Albay’s second district composed of the towns and cities of Rapu-Rapu, Daraga, Legazpi, Camalig and Manito.
“This time around people of the 2nd District of Albay must go for a native son instead of a transplanted politician from another district,” de Leoz said in a brief statement to the press.
De Leoz was referring to Salceda being the former congressman for the third district of Bicol. Salceda then transferred to the second district where he was elected to Congress in 2016.
Aside from being congressman covering two congressional districts, Salceda was also former Albay governor.
De Leoz is not entirely new Bicol politics, however, as he is the grandson former Legazpi mayor, Crispin dela Torre. He is also the nephew of former Legazpi mayor, Francisco de Leoz.
De Leoz said he is “proud” to have come from a family of public servants “who did not enrich themselves while in office.”
Despite the reputation and record of Salceda, de Leoz said he is “unfazed” of running against an opponent with “deep pocket” as he called on Salceda and other candidates to a debate on their respective programs of government, particularly on the “failures of Salceda’s economic initiatives in Congress.”
De Leoz is a known para-legal and news writer and a development worker, having handled the Special Concerns, Street Children and Livelihood Programs under the President’s Social Fund when he was a presidential staff officer in Malacañang.
De Leoz is a news reporter of the Daily Tribune in Bicol and creator of the 230,000-strong Opinyon Bicol page, Bicolandia’s rising news portal on Facebook.
