The pressure to choose heightened for Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale after the Garcias announced that Rep. Pablo John Garcia would run for Cebu governor and that the slot of a runningmate was “reserved” for her.
“It is a great honor to be handpicked by the congressman but I can’t answer that. My party will make the announcement,” she told reporters in Tuburan town where she spent the day paying tribute to the memory of a Liberal Party stalwart, the late vice governor Greg Sanchez Jr. on his first year death anniversary.
Magpale was not present in Thursday evening’s consultation of One Cebu party mayors and officials where Garcia’s candidacy was announced.
Asked why she didn’t attend that pivotal event, she replied: “I didnt know that there was a meeting.. I wasn’t aware of any invitation.”
Magpale, who belongs to the Barug party, said she would wait for the return of her “political mentor”, cousin Ramonito Durano, Danao city vice mayor, who leads Barug, which controls votes in the 5th district in northern Cebu.
Durano is on travel in the United States.
Magpale was in Tuburan town yesterday with lawyer Hilario Davide III, LP Cebu province chairman, who has been urging her to run for reelection in alliance with the Liberals. Davide is seeking the gubernatrial post for the second time in 2013.
In the unveiling of a monument of Sanchez in the Montecillo Park, the pair were introduced to the crowd three times as “the next governor and vice governor” of Cebu.
Magpale sat beside Davide in the front row with the immediate family of the late Sanchez. Each time they were introduced this way, she just smiled and exchanged looks with Davide.
The day before, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia announced that she would run for a Senate seat, her first time to seek a national position, and that she would transfer her voter’s registration from Dumanjug town in the 2nd district to the next town of Barili in the 3rd district.
The planned transfer led to speculation that if her ratings don’t favor a Senate campaign, she could still run for Congress in the 3rd district being vacated by her youngest brother, Pablo John, now that he’s agreed to run for the governorship.
Gwen’s political nemesis Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district, said he wasn’t bothered by her Senate bid, which could place a second Cebuano in the Upper House, along with Osmeña’s brother Sen. Serge Osmeña.
“Who cares anyway,” he said, adding that she would not win.
“I would rather vote for her horse. Her horse is not against the SRP (South Road Properties). Her horse would not cancel the allowances of a judge who would rule against her. Her horse would not buy underwater property using government funds,” he said.
In a radio dyHP interview yesterday, Pablo John said that the Garcia-led One Cebu party has invited Magpale to be his running mate.
“The party has decided to leave the position to the incumbent for Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale but of course, it will take a little time because the Bakud party has its own process of decision making that we respect,” he said.
“But we formally offered the position to Vice Governor Agnes Magpale,” he added.
Several mayors and members of the Cebu Provincial Board were present at the Marco Polo Plaza where Pablo John announced his bid to run for governor.
In Tuburan town, Vice Governor Magpale kept her political cards close to her chest.
“I never even dreamt I would reach this far. I was ready to retire,” said the 70-year-old widow.
She repeated an anecdote about an old man in Caracar city who told her that she wasn’t elected vice governor, but that it was her destiny that she become one, when she took over after the sudden death of Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr. who succumbed to lung cancer a year ago.
“Sama sa gisulti adtong tiguwang sa Carcar, gipili ko sa Ginoo pagka-bise gobernador. Wala ko pilia sa tao (Like what the old man in Carcar told me, I was chosen by God to become vice governor, I wasn’t chosen by the people),” she said.
LP ready for 2013
In a separate interview, Davide told reporters the party is ready to face whoever is One Cebu’s candidate.
“Liberal Party, we’re ready kung kinsa ang padaganon (Liberal Party, we are ready to whoever will run for governor),” he said.
Asked if they have sealed off the alliance with Bakud, Davide said discussions are ongoing.
“Sige man mi ug istorya ni vice governor… We still have more than a year (We are always talking with the vice governor… We still have more than a year),” he told reporters.
The deadline for fiilng of certificates of candidacy is Oct. 1 to 5.
On Gwen’s plan to run for the Senate, Davide said that he will be supporting LP’s bets for senators, not the opposition alliance UNA or United Nationalist Organization which Garcia is joing.
“We have a lineup for LP so I will support that. … Well, good luck to her,” Davide said.
Sanchez’s daughter, Gigi Sanchez-Zaballero expressed her support for Magpale.
Zaballero said that Magpale never stopped helping the familing after her father died.
“I’m sure the tandem is a strong one,” she told reporters./with reports from Dale Israel and Doris Bongcac