Change is coming? LP tide rises high in Cebu

Cebu City’s Top 3 seats went to the LP: South District representative (Bebot Abellanosa, second from left), mayor (Tommy Osmeña, center), North District representative (Raul Del Mar, second from right). CDN PHOTO/ SANTINO BUNACHITA

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign in Cebu delivered on its ambitious goal: To get 1.5 million votes from the island’s total of 2.7 million registered voters. But the island also swept many candidates of the governing Liberal Party back to office, calling into question the effectiveness or the true scope of the Duterte campaign’s “change is coming” promise. (The LP victories also underscored the limits of the administration’s so-called machinery.)

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, sometimes described in pre-election round-ups as a lackluster candidate, is poised to win re-election against the scion of the Garcia clan; Winston Garcia, the head of 1Cebu, used to serve as chair of the Government Service Insurance System during the Arroyo presidency.

Davide’s LP running mate, Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, won reelection even more handily, defeating seasoned lawmaker Nerissa Soon-Ruiz.

Comebacking Tommy Osmeña, one of the most outspoken members of the LP coalition, reclaimed the seat of Cebu City mayor, beating incumbent Mike Rama of the United Nationalist Alliance.

Congressional races

Of the island’s 10 congressional districts, six voted for the Liberal Party to represent them in Congress.

The two congressional districts of Cebu City went LP, voting in Raul del Mar in the first district and Bebot Abellanosa in the second. The lone district of Lapu-Lapu City voted for the LP candidate too: Aileen Radaza.

And three of Cebu province’s seven congressional districts voted for the LP candidate: Wilfredo Caminero in the second, Jonas Cortes in the sixth, and Peter John Calderon in the seventh (who defeated another scion of the Garcia clan, PJ Garcia).

Council seats

For Cebu City’s Sangguniang Panlungsod or City Council, LP candidates dominated the first four slots in the first district: Alvin Arcilla, Mary de los Santos, Bebs Andales, Joy Young. In the second district, two of the eight winning candidates belong to the Liberal Party: Margot Osmeña, the mayor-elect’s wife, and Jun Gabuya.

LP candidates claimed five of the 14 seats at stake in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan or Provincial Board elections.

Duterte victory

Duterte, who has roots in Cebu, is set to win over 1.4 million votes in the island: With 97.74 percent of polling centers reporting, he has a total of 1,123,705 votes in Cebu province and 296,246 votes in Cebu City.

At the Inquirer Town Hall in Cebu City held on March 19, the Duterte campaign’s spokesperson in Cebu, Raymond Aquino, ventured to say that the campaign was targeting 1.5 million votes from the island — as a proportion of total voters about the same number as President Gloria Arroyo achieved in Cebu in the 2004 elections.

But none of the Cebu candidates of PDP-Laban, of which Duterte is the standard bearer, won office on Election Day.