WILL it be an all-women gubernatorial race?
Talks that Gov. Hilario Davide III, who still has one more term left, will slide to vice governor are rife.
A source inside the Davide-Magpale camp confirmed this. However, Davide said it’s still the governorship for him. As proof, he showed reporters a copy of his certificate of candidacy (COC).
As for Magpale, she said voters will know today when the COCs are filed.
Meanwhile, she denied rumors that she urged Davide to fire some department heads, who are allegedly involved in anomalies, as her condition to be his running mate.
Pointing out the problem
However, she admitted raising the complaints she received about some of the department heads during a meeting with Davide and her partymates.
The rumors started after a mass defection of Davide’s allies to the camp of gubernatorial candidate Gwendolyn Garcia. These also came in the wake of allegations that four of Davide’s trusted men are involved in anomalies.
Davide said he is not worried that almost all of the local mayors support Garcia’s candidacy.
“That’s the nature of politics,” Davide told reporters yesterday.
He was saddened, though, that some of his old allies have defected to the Garcia camp, like Consolacion Mayor Teresa Alegado.
Alegado was seen yesterday with Garcia during the filing of COCs of Cebu 6th district congressional candidate Emmarie Ouano-Dizon.
Davide said Alegado had asked his permission to switch allegiances to Garcia.
And then there were four
Davide said that aside from him, only three aspiring candidates are still with the Liberal Party: Danny Margallo, who is running for vice mayor of Aloguinsan; Provincial Board Member Horacio Franco III of the 6th district; and incumbent Dalaguete Councilor Sidney Belciña, who is running for mayor.
The governor said he has no plans to leave the LP despite invitations from other groups.
“I don’t want to leave the party, which has groomed me since I started running for governor,” he said.
Majority of the mayors in Cebu defected to One Cebu after the administration party, PDP-Laban, endorsed Garcia for governor.
The defection was made clear during the One Cebu convention with Cebu’s mayors last Sunday.
Garcia is the current PDP-LABAN Provincial chairman in Cebu.
Magpale, in a separate interview, assured that mayors in the four districts still support her tandem with Davide.