FILE PHOTO
PANGASINAN, Philippines – For opposition candidates spending more time campaigning under the blistering sun, the solution is heaps of sunblock. Better still, according to one senatorial bet, use the highly-raved glutathione.
Hours of waving on top of campaign vehicles were no doubt taking their toll on the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), but they said that having dark skin tone was the least of their worries.
Former Tarlac Governor Margarita Cojuangco said long exposure to sun is part of the challenges they have to contend with in order to reach the people in the provinces.
“That’s OK, I think it is essential for us to step out of our vehicles and shake hands with the people. [Those complaining about getting darker] they can just use some glutathione,” she told reporters in jest.
Even former senators Ernesto Maceda and Richard Gordon lathered on sunblock to protect themselves from the harmful rays of the sun.
Maceda, already 78 years old, actively took part in UNA’s motorcades this summer and was usually seen standing on top of his campaign vehicle waving to supporters.
Asked how he was doing in such trying conditions, he said: “Look, I am still here, I am doing fine.”
Maceda claimed that the opposition campaign activities have reached “double, triple than what the Team PNoy is reaching.”
Mestizo skin
Quoting San Juan Representative JV Ejercito Estrada, the former senator said that unlike UNA candidates who spent more than half of their time baking under the sun during sorties, Team PNoy candidates have maintained their “mestizo” skin.
“They don’t have motorcades which is why they are still so fair-skinned, they just hold half-day events and head back home,” said Maceda.
“Our schedule is from morning until evening and most of it is for motorcade which is why we have become so dark,” he added.
Zambales Representative Mitos Magsaysay even showed reporters how many shades darker her skin has become since the start of the campaign period.
“My arms are much darker, they no longer match my legs,” she said.
In an earlier interview in Villasis, Pangasinan, Magsaysay remarked at how red her skin turned after their motorcade through several towns of vote-rich Pangasinan.
But she said that meeting voters from far-flung areas was their strategy to make up for their lack of funds for television and radio advertisements.