Gwen ranks 45th in senatorial survey

CEBU Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia voiced surprise over a Pulse Asia Survey that ranked her ahead of former tourism secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano in the list of senatorial candidates in the 2013 elections.

The survey dated last Dec. 7 ranked Garcia no. 45 among 70 personalities seen as potential senatorial candidates.

In its website, Pulse Asia ranked Durano on 47th place ahead of Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo, who ranked 53rd.

Topping the survey were incumbent Senators Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda in first and second places respectively.

In yesterday’s press conference, Garcia said she finds the survey “flattering.”

“Because of the work we have done here in Cebu… That has given me the exposure,” she told reporters at the opening of the coffee shop of her son Paulo inside the Capitol compound.

Garcia reiterated that she is “keeping her options open” about politcal plans after her third and last term as governor ends in 2013.

“I am not having sleepless nights about that. All of these things are really considered,” she said.

She campaigned for the standard bearer of Lakas-Kampi, Gilbert Teodoro, in the last 2010 presidential election as a close supporter of then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Garcia heads her own Cebu-based political party Once Cebu.

The governor said she has not discussed her plans after 2013 within the family but she is assured that her son and two daughters will support her.Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus