NEWSFLASH

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ABLAN-NALUPTA WAR LOOMS IN ILOCOS NORTE

Laoag City, Oct. 12, 1997 - Blood will not be thicker than politics come May 1998, when two cousins are expected to contest the governorship being vacated by 3-termer Governor Rodolfo Farinas.

Farinas, no longer eligible to seek another term, is known to favor Vice Governor Mariano Nalupta as his successor. Nalupta's cousin and very close friend, three-termer Congressman Roque Ablan Jr. is also expected to run for governor. Ablan, like Farinas, cannot seek a fourth term.

Nalupta told reporters that "awan ti kinna-baggianan iti politika (there's no kinship in politics)" as he vowed to pursue the province's top post.

Nalupta was a protégé of Ablan, who guided his first political campaign for provincial board member in the 1980s.

The dispute could get settled once President Ferdinand Marcos' daughter Imee Marcos announces her plans to run for governor of her father's province. Imee was elected Ilocos Norte representative to the Batasang Pambansa (legislature) during her father's term in office.

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