DUTERTE MAY GIVE ROXAS A BIG SURPRISE IN PANAY

By Manny Piñol

A few days before the visit of presidential frontrunner Rody Duterte to Western Visayas, I and my brother Ferdinand made a quiet trip to several provinces in Panay Island meeting up with new acquiantances and linking up with long time friends.

What I saw and heard gave me a preview to what happened in Duterte’s Iloilo City rally which was considered as one of the biggest crowds ever to assemble for a political rally.

These could also be indications of the outcome of the elections in an island long considered as the playground of the administration Liberal Party (LP).

In Capiz, for example, which is the home province of the Roxas clan, I heard murmurs of discontent over how administration candidate Manuel Roxas III, grandson of the late President Manuel Roxas, has neglected his own province and his high-handed handling of political issues.

That was where I met former Mambusao Mayor Jun Labao, who is running for mayor again of one of the biggest towns in the province and who has pledged his support for Duterte, along with three incumbent mayors and four other candidates for mayor.

The other members of the “rebel group” have requested that their names be withheld fearing harassment from the local LP leadership.

It was there where I learned that even in his own province, there are sectors who do not really like Roxas. A mock elections held by students of a local college in Roxas City had Duterte winning over Roxas by a slim margin.

Travelling to Kalibo, Aklan, I met up with former colleague in the Governor’s League, Lito Marquez, who is running for Congress under the National People’s Coalition but whose family members are actively campaigning for Duterte.

The following day, Duterte’s point person in Panay, lawyer Hansel Dedulo, arranged a long trip to Antique where I met up with the two major political groups contesting for local positions.

Antique Governor Exequiel Javier, who was recently re-installed as Governor of the province after a long battle against a disqualification case, is a member of the Liberal Party (LP) but he acknowledges that even in his province, Roxas would have a hard time winning over Duterte.

“There is a group of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) which has rented a truck complete with loudspeakers which goes around the province campaigning for Duterte. I have never seen anything like this,” he told me.

A mock elections conducted by a local university with 100 respondents had Duterte garnering 99 votes as against Roxas’ one. All other candidates got Zero.

After the meeting with Gov. Javier, I accidentally bumped into former Tomas Fornier town mayor Orchid Fornier, who is running for provincial board member and who I discovered is a distant relative from my paternal grandmother’s family, Magbanua.

Her concerns and fears about Duterte’s language and personality resolved, Orchid pledged support for Duterte.

On the way back to Iloilo City, i dropped by a known political kingpin of the province who asked that his name be withheld as he did not want to offend Senator Franklin Drilon, the acknowledged heavyweight of Iloilo politics now.

But the political kingpin said there is a growing movement by the people for a new brand of politics even in a province known to be controlled by traditional political families.

To cap the two-day visit to Panay Island, I met up with former Congresswoman Pacita Gonzales, widow of former justice secretary Raul Gonzales, whose daughter, Marigold, is running for mayor of Iloilo City.

Gonzales brought about 3,000 of her supporters to the Duterte rally a few days later.

With barely a week to go before the elections, many more local political leaders are yielding to the wishes of their people who would like to see change with a Duterte Presidency.

My assessment?

It will not come as a big surprise if Duterte upstages Roxas in his own backyard as a result of a new political phenomenon where the people are the ones pressuring their political leaders on who to support.

(Photos: Mambusao, Capiz Mayor Jun Labao with me and Atty. Hansel Dedulo; former Aklan Gov. Lito Marquez with Atty. Noli Sodusta; Antique Gov. Exequiel Javier with Atty. Tobias Magbanua Javier; a handsaw repairman with his self-made Duterte campaign material made out of a used sack in San Jose, Antique; former mayor Orchid Fornier of Tomas Fornier town; former congresswoman Pacita Gonzales of Iloilo City; revisiting the Guimbal, Iloilo municipal stage where I covered the campaign of then Presidential candidate Fidel V. Ramos in March of 1992 and the centuries old Guimbal church. Photos by Bobong Piñol)