CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Appeals by President Benigno Aquino III to Pampanga voters to elect Liberal Party (LP) candidates, articulated in rallies on Oct. 5, 2012, and March 1, 2013, went largely unheeded.
Election returns on Tuesday showed that the presidential endorsement appeared to have rubbed off only on Representative-elect Oscar Rodriguez of the third district and five mayoral bets in the towns of Arayat, Masantol, Guagua, Candaba and the City of San Fernando. Just one LP candidate made it to the provincial board.
The election did not make Pampanga an LP country, although
Mr. Aquino commanded 327,670 of more than 800,000 votes in the 2010 presidential race.
What is very clear this time is that Pampanga has increasingly become a turf of the Pineda family and its allies through the local party, Kambilan.
Mother-and-son
Commission on Elections data as of 10 a.m. on Tuesday showed Gov. Lilia Pineda leading with 444,989 votes against former Gov. Eddie Panlilio’s 111,794 votes.
Pineda’s son and running mate, Dennis, is leading LP’s Maria Amalia Tiglao-Cayanan in the race for vice governor.
This is the first time that a mother and her son would occupy the two highest positions in the Pampanga government.
Pineda said her reelection is a sign she is being appreciated. “I think it speaks of their trust in me,” she said.
The allies of the Pinedas—Joseller “Yeng” Guiao, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Juan Pablo Bondoc—led congressional races in the first, second and fourth districts.
Seven members of the provincial board allied with the Pinedas are leading.
At least 12 winning candidates for mayor belong to Kambilan; five, LP; two, Nationalist People’s Coalition; one independent; and one Partido Abe Kapampangan, which is allied with Kambilan.
Real reason
Mr. Aquino’s charm, or lack of it, is not a big factor in the defeat of Panlilio, said Grace Jamon, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines. The burden, she said, was on Panlilio, a former priest.
“As he applied ethics and tenacity in governance, he was perceived to be too morally self-righteous,” Jamon said.
She said given the political culture in Pampanga, weighed heavily by poverty, the masses did not favor middle class, antipoverty and prodemocracy positions, which are Western-inspired concepts.
Jamon said Pineda, known in the province as “Nanay Baby,” is popular because “she is a woman, her branding is a mother, she comes off as sincere.”
For Harvey Keh, a colleague of Panlilio in the good governance movement, Kaya Natin, the victory and dominance of the Pinedas meant that “jueteng politics still rules in Pampanga.”