STA. MARIA, Bulacan–Family business should come first before politics to ensure a leader would not steal even a single centavo from government’s money, says a multi millionaire businessman mayoralty candidate in this town.
Barangay Captain of Manggahan Renato “Rey” Castro who is Sta. Maria’s National Unity Party (NUP) mayoralty standard bearer along with his vice mayoralty running mate and complete municipal councilor slate answered questions from the media on Saturday about his absence from local politics scene amidst election atmosphere.
Castro, a civil engineer and his wife own the Reymalyn Group of Companies engage in chain of jewelry shop trading, pawnshop, pharmacy and other business all over Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao attended to the family’s businesses from December to February and only showed himself again in March.
Obet Perez, vice mayoralty running mate of Castro however dismissed reports that the programs of their team in helping the people particularly during the surge of Omicron variant in January and February have been stopped.
Castro has expressed dismay his political rivals took his absence as withdrawal from the race and that allegedly, he and his family’s business were already bankrupt.
“I did not withdraw. There is no truth to that. The fight continues. My fight is on. There is no truth to any of those claims”. “Narito po ako, wala pong katotohan na ako ay umurong na, Hindi po ako umurong, hindi po ako umatras, tuloy po ang laban,” he said.
Castro and Perez and their whole “Reymalyn Team” reiterate their strong position and commitment which they signed in an earlier manifesto that they will remove bribery, system of goodwill money and all forms of corruption if they get elected.
They appeal to the people of Sta. Maria to convert the poor performance of the leaders of their town particularly during the pandemic into wise votes.
In his Barangay alone in Manggahan, Castro distributed “ayuda packs” during the two year pandemic for 29 times.
Castro asks the people to paint Sta. Maria with color orange in the May 9 election saying their orange color symbolizes success, glory and peace.
