‘Team Uswag’ finalizes city council slate for 2025

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By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas has completed the ‘Uswag’ team’s slate for Sangguniang Panglungsod positions, finalizing his selections for four open spots more than a year ahead of the 2025 local elections.

Treñas announced the candidates on Friday, April 12 – former city councilors Lyndon Acap and Mandrie Malabor, ex-Sangguniang Kabataan federation president Sheen Marie Mabilog, and the current head of the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO), Jeck Conlu.

Malabor and Mabilog, currently serving as executive assistants in Treñas’s office, are now preparing for their campaigns.

Conlu, with a background as a barangay councilor and leader of the Urban Poor Affairs Office, cited his diverse experience as laying the groundwork for his candidacy, yet he commits to his PSTMO responsibilities until candidacy filings commence, likely in October.

“We will look at our job [as PSTMO head] even more because we do aim to enter [local] politics. We will focus on this more because we don’t want people to assume that our interests are solely on politics. We are not from politics, but we are soldered to the mandate of our office,” Conlu said in a radio interview.

According to Treñas, the Uswag Ilonggo Party selected the slate after thorough research, community consultations, and broad sectoral validation.

The new candidates will join incumbents seeking re-election, including Sedfrey Cabaluna, Jose Ma. Miguel Treñas, Alan Zaldivar, Frances Grace Parcon-Torres, Rudolph Jeffrey Ganzon, Rex Marcus Sarabia, Johnny Young, and Romel Duron.

They’re set to replace term-limited councilors Ely Estante and Candace Magdalane Tupas and challenge the seats of incumbents Urminico Baronda Jr. and Sumakwel Nava.

Baronda’s recent ouster from key committee leadership positions and the political shifts within his family hint at an evolving dynamic with the mayor’s camp.

OTHER PLANS?

Regarding Councilor Baronda’s status within the slate, the mayor simply said, “Looks like they have other plans.”

The councilor was formally stripped of his leadership in the committees on education, health, and information technology portfolios on Monday.

He alleged an “external influence” on the shakeup, citing a verbal agreement with Ganzon which referred only to the education committee.

This also comes on the heels of the dismissal of Councilor Baronda’s daughter, Lady Julie Grace Baronda, as the mayor’s executive assistant on March 14, and the endorsement of Raisa Treñas-Chu, the mayor’s daughter, in the 2025 congressional race over the councilor’s daughter, incumbent Rep. Julienne Baronda last March 15.

Rep. Julienne, while showing support for Treñas’s electoral ambitions, has not clarified her intentions for the next term amidst recent overtures towards President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his administration, evidenced by her presence at a recent Malacañang dinner and a notable interaction with the president in Bacolod City on April 8.