20,000 rice cakes, chicken meals distributed in Davao Sur BBM-Sara rally

Bibingka (Baked Rice) | INQUIRER.net stock image

DIGOS CITY—At least 20,000 rice cakes (“bibingka”) that this city is famous for, chicken meals, and t-shirts awaited people who came to the grand rally at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday of presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos and vice presidential bet Sara Duterte-Carpio here.

Tres de Mayo Barangay Captain Oscar “Dodong” Bucol, Jr., who supervised the preparations, said these were to ensure that those who came early would not starve.

Local rallies that started at 2 p.m., where local bets affiliated with the Uniteam campaigned for their respective posts at a vacant area in Barangay Tres de Mayo, about three kilometers north of this city, preceded the grand rally.

The four-hectare site just a few meters from the Davao-Cotabato Highway used to be part of an abandoned subdivision known among locals as Desi Heights.

Bucol said it took at least a week for volunteers to clear the area from bushes and debris to ensure that the venue would be safe.

Organizers also informed those joining the grand rally, the biggest event in the city since the start of the pandemic, to wear their face masks. They also barred supporters from bringing children below nine years old, sling bags, bladed weapons, and other materials that could hurt participants.

Supporters expect comedian Andrew E and the Aegis Band among the entertainers at the venue.

Candidates affiliated with the Unity Team, such as the HNP provincial chapter, Barug Davao del Sur, and Abante Digos, held a caravan at 10 a.m., March 30, in Hagonoy, where groups from different municipalities were to promenade the city’s thoroughfares before going to the grand rally venue.

Among the local bets, Kiblawan Mayor Carl Jason Rama Bautista, the son of Davao Occidental Gov. Claude Bautista, runs for governor under the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HnP), Barug and Abante aggrupation under the BBM-Sara Unity Team. He runs in tandem with vice governor aspirant Arvin “Jun Blanco” Malaza against the wife and cousin of Gov. Marc Cagas, who assumed the post of governor after his father, the elected governor, died in June last year.

Erwin Llanos, the son of the late governor Rogelio Llanos, is vying for the seat at the House of Representatives of the lone district of Davao del Sur, while former city mayor Joseph R. Peñas, concurrent chair of the political group Abante Digos, is running again for mayor of Digos City under the Unity Team.

Peñas was a three-term mayor of this city until 2019, when he lost his bid for governor of Davao del Sur against the late governor Douglas Cagas.

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