In Ecija, P-Noy seeks to turn tide for LP bets

SAN JOSE CITY—President Aquino on Wednesday visited this onion-producing city and nearby Talavera town to campaign for Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas and his running mate Leni Robredo.

But is his star power enough to reverse the trend of Nueva Ecija voters casting their ballots for a more popular name or personality as they have in the past two presidential elections?

In the 2004 elections, popular actor Fernando Poe Jr. topped the race in the province. Poe had 476,220 votes against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s 160,438 votes.

In 2010, Joseph Estrada’s 426,542 votes outmatched then presidential candidate Aquino’s 295,015 votes. For the 2010 vice presidential race, then Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay drew 471,431 votes while Roxas got 266,321 votes.

The Commission on Elections ranks Nueva Ecija as the ninth vote-rich province in the country with 1.29 million registered voters. That list is topped by Cebu province, with 2.41 million voters, while Pangasinan ranks third with 1.62 million voters.

In Talavera, Mr. Aquino presided over the “switch-on” ceremony for the electrification of 1,197 sitios in Central Luzon. He was joined in the rites by Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada, administrator Editha Bueno of the National Electrification Administration, and Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali.

Mr. Aquino was then flown by helicopter to this city’s Pag-asa gymnasium to campaign for the LP ticket.

In Bulacan province, a bookstore chain has been staging mock elections in five of its provincial branches by asking customers to vote for their presidential candidate, using mongo beans.

Pandayan Bookstore set up five empty mineral water bottles representing Binay, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Sen. Grace Poe, Roxas and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

Each bottle bore the candidates’ caricatures so customers could tell them apart.

Mark Lopez, a bookstore attendant, said the mock elections would end once the bottles were filled to the brim. The bookstore set up voting booths in two branches at the City of Malolos, a branch in the City of Meycauayan, and one each in the towns of Hagonoy and Balagtas.

The mock elections were started on the last week of January because the store management wanted to know to whom voters in the province were leaning. Reports from Anselmo Roque and Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon