Senator Franklin Drilon. FILE PHOTO
STA. BARBARA, Iloilo—It’s the second half of the campaign period and administration candidates who have to play catch-up are free to press the flesh on their own in places where the surveys say they are weakest, even if it means leaving President Aquino to campaign by his lonesome.
Of the administration’s 12 senatorial candidates, only former Sen. Jamby Madrigal was present at the Team PNoy rally in this town on Wednesday that had no less than Aquino addressing the crowd.
“You know, each candidate has his or her own survey. Wherever they’re shown to be weak, they concentrate their efforts in those places,” said Team PNoy campaign manager and Liberal Party stalwart Sen. Franklin Drilon, speaking to reporters after the rally. The LP is the leading party in the Team PNoy coalition.
“There are candidates who are strong in one place, that’s why they go to those places where they aren’t so. Those who are somehow lagging behind in Region VI [Western Visayas], they come here,” said Drilon.
With the race for the last six seats in the senatorial slate wide open, both President Aquino and Vice President Jejomar Binay have gone out of their way to seek grassroots support for their candidates.
Three administration candidates—Madrigal, former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros—continue to miss the cut in the 12-person race for the Senate according to surveys.
Two other administration candidates were also in the region early Wednesday—former Las Piñas City Rep. Cynthia Villar and Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara—but both had to leave for other activities after speaking to an audience in Mambusao, Capiz.
“Don’t give any meaning to the absence of the others because candidates have different standings [in the polls],” Drilon said.
Iloilo had more than a million registered voters in 2010, while Capiz had around 400,000.
The other provinces in the region are Aklan with over 300,000 registered voters, Antique with almost 280,000, Guimaras with over 90,000 and vote-rich Negros Occidental with more than 1.5 million voters.
Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) said that in an election bereft of polarizing issues and divisions along party lines, the support of governors, representatives, mayors and councilors could make the difference between winning and losing in the senatorial race.
In the trenches
“We local politicians work the trenches. We could make national candidates more so when genuine national issues define their candidacies. That’s what we are doing in our neck of the woods—campaigning for our favored senatorial bets,” said Aggabao in a text message.
Although the NPC is part of the Team PNoy coalition, some of its local members have threatened to junk some of the administration’s senate bets after the Liberal Party fielded local candidates against incumbent NPC members.
NPC has candidates in both Team PNoy (reelectionist Sen. Loren Legarda) and UNA (Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile).
Another NPC member, Sen. Tito Sotto, said the Philippines was “evenly divided” among the major political parties—NPC, Nacionalista Party, Lakas-CMD, UNA and National Unity Party—that the LP, President Aquino’s party, would have a hard time commanding a 12-0 2 win for Team PNoy.
Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara concurred, saying that local officials held the key to winning, especially for those in the bottom 12 of the senatorial race.
Angara, of Team PNoy, has barely made it to the winning circle in recent surveys. “Local officials are important in delivering the votes for senatorial candidates. Popularity is important but so is getting the people to vote, particularly in far-flung barangays,” he said.