ASIDE from spending his 45th birthday celebration with family and friends yesterday, Rep. Pablo John Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district coined a new catchphrase for himself for next year’s elections.
“During my visits to towns, the emcees would call me as Pablo John ‘Padayon Jud’ Garcia. I sort of blurted it out during one of my speeches. In my first campaign in 2007, it was ‘Panahon na Jud.’ (It’s really your time) I guess it just came naturally,” he said.
The two-term congressman is being groomed to replace his sister Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia in 2013.
He said he would use “Padayon Jud “ this early “to encapsulate the reasons why I’m running.” The phrase in English is a call to “forge ahead”, “proceed” or “continue”.
Pablo John Garcia is the youngest child of Deputy House Speaker Pablo Garcia and retired Judge Esperanza Garcia.
He told Cebu Daily News, he spent his birthday with his wife and three kids.
Pablo John said he wished for more energy and patience and to always remember why he is in public service in the first place.
“Because of a deeply ingrained value, instilled in me by my father, that there is no greater happiness and contentment than the feeling that comes from helping others. All others are not as lasting nor as deep,” he said in a text message.
His elder sister, Governor Garcia is on her third and last term, and announced plans to run for a seat in the Senate in 2013.
She said the candidate of One Cebu for governor will continue the programs that her administration started.
PJ Garcia is up against the Liberal Party’s provincial chairman Hilario “Junjun” Davide III, who is also a lawyer, for the governor’s post.
It will be Davide’s second time to run for governor after losing to Gwen Garcia by less than 100,000 votes in 2010./Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus