By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

REPRESENTATIVE Candido B.Taman says he will seek re-election with or without the Republican Party’s endorsement.
But Taman said he still believes that his party’s central committee will nominate him despite the GOP Precinct 4 club’s selection of Sylvestre Iguel and Barbara Yamada as the party’s House candidates for the precinct.
Taman said incumbent members of the Legislature seeking reelection are always given preference by the party.
Noting that he received nearly 900 votes in Precinct 4 in the last elections, Taman said there’s no reason for the GOP to endorse anybody else.
In the 2005 elections Taman placed second to Vice Speaker Justo S. Quitugua, D-Saipan, in the five-way race for the Precinct 4’s two House seats.
Quitugua received 1,409 votes; Taman, 836; the Covenant Party’s Gonzalo Q. Santos, 625; and the GOP’s Enrique T. Dela Cruz, 574.
Babauta said voters are the only ones who can take away “the mandate they gave me.”
Taman said he is still hoping that the GOP’s central committee and Precinct 4 club will resolve their differences.