ILOILO CITY—Contrary to the statement of Liberal Party (LP) leaders, defection to the camp of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte started even months before the May 9 elections.
In Guimbal town in Iloilo, supposedly a bailiwick of LP, administration candidate Mar Roxas narrowly won by two votes against Duterte after former Iloilo representative and Mayor-elect Oscar Garin, an LP member, switched support to Duterte.
Out of the 17,030 votes cast, Roxas got 6,045 votes while Duterte had 6,043 votes. They were followed by Sen. Grace Poe (2,281), Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago (1,451) and Vice President Jejomar Binay (604).
But Roxas’ running mate, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, won by a large margin with 10,526 votes followed by Senators Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (2,492), Francis Escudero (1,080), Alan Cayetano (981), Antonio Trillanes IV (499) and Gregorio Honasan (142).
This was a far cry from the wide margin of Roxas in 40 other towns and one city of Iloilo province that range from 10,000 to 15,000 votes.
For the whole province, Roxas got 657,940 votes, followed by Poe (166,480), Duterte (146,294), Santiago (59,754) and Binay (37,430).
Garin, patriarch of the Garin clan, one of the dominant political families in the province, has publicly admitted supporting Duterte. He claimed that Duterte could have won a landslide if not for false text messages days before the election that Garin is supporting Roxas.
But he said he was the only one in his clan who switched to Duterte.
“We only differed in the presidential candidate. I supported Leni,” he said.
The Garin clan is part of the alliance of political families and stalwarts in Iloilo in support of Roxas and Robredo. The alliance also includes the Tupas, Defensor and Biron families.
Garin was unopposed as well as his wife Nimfa, who was elected mayor of San Joaquin town.
His son, reelected Iloilo Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin Jr., and daughter, Iloilo Vice Gov.-elect Christine “Tingting” Garin, won by landslide margins.
Another daughter, Sharon, is expected to retain her seat as representative of the party-list group AAMBIS-OWA.
Health Secretary Janette Garin is a daughter-in-law of Oscar.
He said he decided to support Duterte partly because the LP did not honor an agreement that the choice of the party’s candidate for vice governor will be decided by his family and the Tupas clan.
Iloilo Rep. Niel “Junjun” Tupas Jr. became the official candidate of LP for vice governor but was trounced by outgoing Guimbal Mayor Christine Garin.
“I believe Duterte can bring change. It’s a gamble but it’s worth it,” said Oscar.
He said he also wanted to “be with the winner.”