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Sunday, December 14, 2003
Pangasinan group vows one million votes for FPJ
By Melandrew T. Velasco
SAN CARLOS CITY -- "Layos."
It's a native word for landslide and at least one million votes are exclusively reserved for the province's native son and leading presidential bet Fernando Poe Jr. for the May 2004 elections.
This was boldly proclaimed yesterday by a multi-sectoral coalition of Pangasinenses which has come out openly in support of the province's most illustrious and popular son who was born in this fast-booming city and whose father was a true-blue Pangasinense.
Calling itself the Cabaleyan nen Palaris Movement for FPJ, in honor of the presidential bet's first movie, Anak ni Palaris, the Pangasinan coalition is confident to deliver one million solid votes out of the province's 1.5 million voters.
"Despite President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose mother, the late Dr. Evangelina Macaraeg-Macapagal, was a native of Binalonan, the overwhelming majority of Pangasinenses will go for FPJ because they feel a much closer affinity and connection with him than GMA," declared businessman Danilo Uy of Rosales town, who is a coordinator of the FPJ Movement in Pangasinan.
FPJ's entry in the presidential derby has excited his provincemates and, chances are, he would surpass the more than 600,000 votes of former President Fidel V. Ramos in 1992 and the more than 700,000 votes of 1998 presidential bet and incumbent House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., both native sons who gained solid Pangasinan votes.
The rest of the 500,000 votes will be divided among President Arroyo, other presidential aspirants, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is married to Alice de Perio of Bolinao, and former Education Secretary Raul Roco, who is being supported by former Governor Rafael Colet.
Prominent political leaders have reportedly come out in the open to support FPJ's presidential bid. Former and incumbent officials from the national, provincial, congressional, city and municipal levels, including prominent civic and religious leaders, farmers, fisherfolks, workers and students are expected to troop to this city for FPJ's first formal campaign launching at the Virgen Milagrosa University (VMU) in the next few days.
Reliable sources said even incumbent Gov. Victor Agbayani and former Vice Governor Ranjit Ramos-Shahani have already sent feelers to openly declare their support for FPJ.
"The FPJ bandwagon is sweeping the province and President Arroyo will be in for a bigger surprise in Pangasinan, despite the open support of top Lakas leaders like League of Municipalities president and Binalonan Mayor Ramon Guico Jr.," said lawyer Bonifacio M. Sison of Bugallon town.
Sison said many Pangasinenses are dismayed over the President's treatment of Pangasinan and its leaders including the relief of former Agrarian Reform and Press Secretary Hernani A. Braganza, Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor and just recently, Deputy Director General Reynaldo V. Velasco, who was eased out from the PNP hierarchy and placed in the Philippine Center for Transnational Crime.
"Not a single Pangasinan leader sits in the Macapagal-Arroyo Cabinet today, except for a token Cabinet rank position for Braganza as presidential adviser on political affairs, which is the biggest anomaly and insult to the great province of Pangasinan," said lawyer Raul Lambino of Pozzorubio town, who is rallying a battery of Philconsa lawyers to join the FPJ volunteer lawyers' group.
In the past, Pangasinan has produced great leaders like President Ramos, his father Ambassador Narciso Ramos and sister former Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani, the late Speaker Eugenio Perez, Speaker Jose De Venecia, former Executive Secretary Oscar Orbos, former Agrarian Reform Minister Conrado Estrella, former Health Secretary Francisco Duque, former Senator and Governor Tito Primicias, former Executive
Secretary Jacobo Clave, former Information Minister Gregorio Cendana, former Health Secretary Francisco Duque, the late Governor Aguedo Agbayani, former Energy Secretary Francisco Viray, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Gabby Singson, the late Dean Jeremias Montemayor, the late Congressman Antonio Villar, former Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Vic Millora, among others," said Lambino.
"It would take a lot of convincing and command votes to ensure a solid victory for President Arroyo in Pangasinan alone," said Jess Junio of Bayambang, as he cited the "dismal number of times she visited the province, foremost of which is the infusion of much needed infrastructure projects sorely lacking during the last three years of her incumbency."
"For someone who claims to be a Pangasinense, action, not empty words, speaks louder in the hearts and minds of her so-called provincemates," said Junio, who is also the president of the AJM-FPJ or Ang Ipaglaban Mo for Freedom, Peace and Justice.
(Editor's Note: In 1998, the author wrote and published in the Manila Bulletin that actor FPJ should consider running for Pangasinan governor in May 2001 polls to properly prepare him for the presidency in 2004 after President Joseph Estrada. The EDSA II that installed Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last January 20, 2001 as president cut short that plan. Today, FPJ is at the crossroads of fulfilling a prophecy that he would be the country's next president via the May, 2004 elections.)
(December 14, 2003 issue)
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