Monday, April 16, 2007 It’s ‘back to barangays’ for candidates By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
IN SITIO Baca, a narrow and dark alley leads to a thickly populated community in Barangay Apas. It’s a dead end up ahead, but it is a comfort zone for incumbent Cebu City officials seeking reelection.
The barangay is home to some 15,000 constituents whose officials are allied with the ruling party Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).
Being incumbent officials and allies with majority of the city’s barangay captains may give BOPK candidates an advantage.
Still, they are not taking the campaign lightly.
“We have to campaign as hard as we can, we don’t want to sound too overconfident just because we are incumbents,” said Councilor Hilario Davide III, who finished first in the north district council race in 2004.
Daily walks
Everyday, the candidates wake up as early as 5 a.m. to visit the sitios to seek the constituents’ support in the May 14 elections.
Parents sending their children off to school, vendors attending to their stores, young boys fetching water for their mothers who are busy with the early morning laundry are sure to get stickers and fliers from the candidates themselves.
From one house to another, the candidates introduce themselves to the homeowners and say: “Si Konsehal _____sa BOPK, ayaw kalimot inig eleksyon.”
The same routine will keep the candidates and their wives busy in the next 27 days, often done in the innermost areas of the barangays where the canals are not covered and the roofs leak during a slight drizzle.
“We have to connect with the people and this is our way of renewing our ties with our constituents. Besides, it has always been a BOPK principle to be in touch with the people we serve and usually it is during the campaign that we get to do this,” Davide told Sun.Star Cebu.
Pleasantries and handshakes are exchanged as candidates crouch to avoid hitting roofs and clotheslines. The potbellied will find themselves having to walk sideways to get through the narrow alleys.
The campaign is a lot of work for Councilor Augustus Pe Jr., who finished at the last spot in the eight-seat council slate in the north district.
“Bentaha gyud ang ruling party kay suportado ta sa barangay officials. Pero maninguha gyud gihapon ko ug pangampanya ug duol sa mga tawo kay dili man ta sure win, dili man ta sigurado mudaog (One advantage of being the ruling party is having the barangay officials’ support. But I want to keep campaigning, because there’s no guarantee I’ll win),” he said during yesterday’s campaign.
Councilors Edgardo Labella, Nestor Archival, Augustus Pe Jr., Edwin Jagmoc and Davide tackled seven sitios in Apas for the handshaking yesterday morning and went back in the evening for the pulong-pulong.
Banilad Barangay Captain Lea Japson, who is seeking a council seat, also campaigned while reelectionist Rep. Raul del Mar (north district) was represented by his son.
Like previous election years, the candidates’ wives are also active in the campaign, joining their husbands in the barangay visits every day.
Jobel Davide and her children find the activities e a good form of exercise and a chance to witness the day-to-day life of the ordinary Cebuanos.
“We have to go out to campaign because you can never be too sure about winning. Besides, it’s an opportunity for us to go back to the barangays and for the children to see the reality and what the lives of the people in the sitios are like,” she said.
For Councilor Davide, his wife and children’s support and involvement in the campaign is enough to boost his morale, no matter how tiring the campaign gets.
Sweating profusely after covering Sitio Baca, a couple of councilors sit by the roadside for a cigarette break, gathering energy to visit six more sitios for the day, and a hundred others before the campaign period ends on May 12. (LCR)
