In Nueva Ecija, the winner is …

To Dr. Flor Amor Monta, a political science professor of the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) in the Science City of Muñoz, the real winner in the May 13 elections in Nueva Ecija is the province itself.

“There was no disturbing election-related violence that happened, which was uncharacteristic given previous political exercises in the province,” Monta said. “Maybe in future elections, Nueva Ecija will already be removed from the list of election hot spots.”

He said the conduct of the elections indicated that Novo Ecijanos had denounced political violence or that security measures provided by the government troops were more than adequate.

“It also appeared that Novo Ecijanos didn’t like the return of a Joson in power. Rep. [Josefina] Joson was in the best position to defeat reelectionist Gov. [Aurelio] Umali because of her good performance in Congress and her advocacy for women’s rights, but she failed,” he said.

Joson’s running mate, Eduardo Joson IV, her brother-in-law and former vice governor, also did not do well in the polls.

Based on the latest unofficial tally (GMA Network poll count as of 10 a.m. Tuesday), Umali had 411,919 votes while Joson had 251,606 votes.

Umali’s running mate, Gay Padiernos, had 400,226 votes while his Joson opponent had 226,722 votes. Nueva Ecija has 1,363,638 voters.

Monta said Novo Ecijanos did not like too many members of a political clan ruling the province. Only a few Josons (a mayor, a board member, and a city councilor) would likely win elective posts this year.

“Umali had tried to increase the number of his relatives in political [positions] but he failed,” said Monta, also dean of the CLSU Open University.

“Although his wife, Czarina, won her reelection as congresswoman, his brother, Anthony, failed to win the mayoral post of Cabanatuan City,” he said.

Monta said among the reasons Umali won were his being friendly and his visible projects, like streetlights, gymnasiums in many villages and an overpass in front of CLSU, among others.

“[But] there were no big issues discussed by our politicians. They also did not present elaborate plans on how to improve the province economically and socially,” he said.

He said compared with other Central Luzon provinces, Nueva Ecija was lagging behind in terms of presence of big business. He said it would have been better that aside from capitalizing on the province’s agriculture, small- and medium-scale businesses would be encouraged and developed.

“What we have observed is that infrastructure development was given more attention and allocated more funds than any other concerns in the province,” he said.