A CANDIDATE’S DIARY, DAY 32: 14,000 PEOPLE ATTEND PIGCAWAYAN RALLY!

In what is considered as the biggest political event in the history of the town of Pigcawayan, an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 people gathered for my final rally in the public space fronting the municipal building last night.

The crowd was so huge that when I spoke, I had to move to both ends of the stage to be able to see the people who were in the left and right sides of the field.

“Wala pa ni matabo sa kasaysayan sang Pigcawayan,” Vice Mayor Herminio Roquero, a former mayor who is again running for mayor this election, said. (This has never happened in the whole history of Pigcawayan.)

The people came as early as 5 o’clock in the afternoon for the rally which started at about 7 p.m.

Some of them just stayed in the periphery of the public park but when I stood on the stage to deliver my last political speech prior to the election, the people gathered into one big mass of humanity.

“That people of Pigcawayan have spoken even before the day of the election,” said Engr. Gerry Pieldad who attended the rally to represent Cong. Jesus N. Sacdalan, whose reelection bid I am supporting.

More could have come to the rally if only my party had the resources to provide transportation to poor people from the remotest areas who wanted to attend the rally.

“I have to turn off my celphone because people were calling and angry that nobody came to pick them up from their barangays,” said coordinator Ben Casis.

The Pigcawayan turn out is so far the biggest attendance of people in all of the rallies that I have conducted in the province, eclipsing even the estimated 10,000 crowd in M’lang which attended the proclamation rally in my hometown.

It was obvious that the people came to listen to me because every time a candidate other than me spoke, they moved listlessly. But they froze every time I took the microphone to address them.

Observing this, I devised a way of still getting them to listen to the other candidates by allowing the others to speak in between my political address.

I have never lost an election in this town of over 30,000 voters and judging from the number of people who attended last night’s rally which stretched up to 11 o’clock in the evening, I am certain that I will win again in Pigcawayan this year.

After the rally, political leaders who assessed the event said the historic gathering of people for a political event was already a very clear statement from the people of Pigcawayan.

They want Manny Pinol to be back as their Governor.