Team PNoy to campaign in Arroyo’s home province

ADMINISTRATION-backed Team PNoy is set to visit the province of Pampanga on Friday, March 1, in a bid to woo voters in the home province of former President and now Pampanga's second district Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

According to the party's itinerary, senatorial candidates of Team PNoy will campaign at the Genuino Park in Candaba town in the morning.

In the afternoon, President Benigno Aquino III will join the administration bets in a rally and proclamation of local candidates at the Heroes Hall in the City of San Fernando.

Team PNoy senatorial ticket will conclude its Pampanga sortie in Guagua town, one of the municipalities in Arroyo's district.

Arroyo, who is now under hospital detention at the Veteran Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, is seeking a re-election in the May polls. She is facing plunder charges for alleged misuse of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) intelligence funds during her term as President.

The Liberal Party (LP) is fielding former Pampanga provincial administrator Vivian Dabu against Arroyo.
 
Earlier, Team PNoy campaign spokesperson and House Deputy Speaker LOrenzo Tañada III debunked claims that Pampanga is an "Arroyo country."
 
Tañada cited the 2010 official canvas results showing that President Aquino was the runaway winner in the 10-cornered presidential race with 327,666 votes or roughly 36.5 percent of the 914,787 total number of votes cast.
 
"It's very clear that Pampanga is a bailiwick of the President, not Arroyo or whoever is claiming to be the opposition," he said.
 
The then administration candidate Gilberto Teodoro, whom Arroyo endorsed during the 2010 presidential race, only got 280,462 votes or 31.24 percent.
 
Aquino's running mate, now Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II garnered a massive 413,016 votes or 47.20 percent, way ahead of now Vice President Jejomar Binay who only got 220,357 or 25.18 percent of the total votes cast.

Going south, the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) will woo voters in Northern Mindanao who backed the tandem of coalition leaders former President Joseph Estrada and Binay in 2010.

UNA candidates will hold a rally at the Bukidnon Provincial Capital Grounds in Malaybalay City on Saturday evening before travelling on the same night to Cagayan de Oro City for a similar activity the next day.

The coalition will end its campaign in the region in Iligan City, where candidates will have a motorcade and a two-hour rally on March 4. (Kathrina Alvarez/Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)