Everywhere you look here, there is a Junio.
According to Local Civil Registrar Ismael Malicdem Jr., an estimated 65% of Bayambang's population are part of the Junio clan. As of July 2024, 9,284 Bayambangueños have Junio as surname, clearly an edge in a town with about 130,000 population. This statistic hides the equally huge number of those with Junio as middle name due to intermarriage.
This means practically everyone in Bayambang is related to the Junios. This also explains why Municipal Councilor Mylvin 'Boying' Junio is consistently the number one councilor in town, even without having to do an intensive election campaign. Of course, it helped that he has the common touch, but the Junio factor is a huge factor, because the same factor must be at work in the number of other officials, including kapitans, through the years (now called Punong Barangay) who got elected to their position largely because of their name recall.
Other officials who belong or belonged to the Junio clan include Councilor Amory, Councilor Junie Angeles, Councilor Chato Junio (through marriage), and of course the former Mayor, Atty. Jaime P. Junio, the Philippines' longest-running mayor at the time.
Scratch some random resident's full name, and you are sure to come up with many more Junios. Dig deeper and you will find a Junio in practically every corner of this town.
Dig even deeper and you will see that this town is, as they say, practically one big family, the Junio family! It is not unusual for a Junio to marry another Junio, as long as the relation is beyond the third degree of consanguinity, so 65% is a very conservative estimate. It is more like 80%.
The divisive nature of current politics in this town is therefore unbecoming, for it inevitably pits Junios versus other Junios in bitter rivalry. The Junio factor, on the other hand, can be parlayed as a huge political capital, for any sitting leader can appeal to the whole town as "the Junio family, our family."
As Junio descendants would say in the Pangasinan language, "Balbaleg ya talaga so boleg na Junio."
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