Former Isabela councilor PM Montilla withdraws candidacy for provincial board member

Former Isabela municipal councilor Patrick Miguel “PM” Montilla withdrew his candidacy for Negros Occidental Provincial Board Member as an independent.

He withdrew his candidacy for the 5th Provincial District by filing a sworn statement of Cancellation/Withdrawal with the Provincial COMELEC on Wednesday, January 29, 2025.

In his Sworn Statement of Cancellation, Montilla stated that he is withdrawing his candidacy as Board Member “after careful thought”, citing personal reasons for the withdrawal. Montilla also stated specifically that his withdrawal is made prior to election and in accordance with law pursuant to Par. 2 of Section 73 of the Omnibus Election Code.

In a phone interview, Montilla revealed that he withdrew “because of the significant lack of unified legislation in the province regulating some important areas in the daily life of the people such as road safety and public health, as well as the lack of effective legislation supervising and protecting the critical interactions among the stakeholders of the sugar industry which happens to be the major economic infrastructure of the province.”

Montilla explained that his desire to be elected as Board Member for the purpose of initiating significant legislations on road safety came from the experience of losing his own father to a car accident in the same way that his advocacy for provincial supervision and protection of the sugar industry also stemmed from his own personal experience in sugar farming.

Montilla stated that “it is ironic how the stakeholders in the sugar industry are seemingly left on their own to fend off the challenges facing them without any form of assistance or protection from the local government.”

He cited the perennial problems that sugar planters encounter during the milling season wherein the workers are exploited by informal “contractors” leading these workers to jump from one farm to the next without finishing their contracts because they are not receiving the full compensation from their “contractors”.

In the end, he said, planters are left with their standing canes looking for cutters from outside the province paying higher rates in spite of them paying advances to the contractors. Worse, both planters and workers have no adequate and effectual legal recourse to run after the contractors. He also cited that the lack of support from the government makes it easy for unscrupulous individuals to exploit agrarian reform beneficiaries who are also stakeholders in the sugar industry, he added.

Montilla revealed that he has been exploring other opportunities which led him to alternative avenues that “might even provide for a faster and more efficient way of realizing his goal to initiate and enact provincial legislation for road safety and protecting the sugar industry” without the need for him to be elected as Board Member.

“I might lose these alternative avenues if I run as a candidate for Board Member which is why I opted to withdraw my candidacy so I can pursue on these alternatives”, Montilla added.

Montilla stated that he does not wish to preempt the outcome of these alternatives which he and his supporters are still working on but promised that it is all aligned with his desire of protecting and securing the interests of the 5th District which will be revealed at the right time.*