SCROLLING down: The numbers tend to favor Gwen Garcia camp; analysts may look at each mayor or political party and how much voting clout does the support carry... Was Governor Junjun Davide afraid of the tough battle ahead with the mass defections? It was his response to a crisis, a Capitol watcher says.
BEFORE that: Sara Carpio-Duterte filed her COC for Davao City mayor, her brother Paolo for congressman in the city’s first district, and her other brother Sebastian or Baste? As her vice mayor.
The numbers speak for themselves: The Garcia-Salimbangon team seems to have the upper hand over the Magpale-Davide tandem.
* four out of seven House representatives;
* 26 out of 50 component city and town mayors;
* four national parties and one local party.
That will be validated if political analysts will determine how much voting clout each politician or political party carries. That will give a landscape of the battle that will ensue.
Other factors will be: how each campaign machinery performs, the issues of each camp against the other, the messaging capability, the covert strategies and tactics, and, not the least, the resources on each side.
Explained: the dramatic switch
Governor Junjun Davide insisted during the press-con announcing the swap with Vice Governor Agnes Magpale that he worried over his mayor-allies who received all sorts of pressure from the rival camp.
He himself was not scared but it must have been too much for the mayors who supported him and were compelled to defect. It would’ve been more credible had Junjun presented two or more mayors who would testify publicly about the alleged pressure.
Talking about credibility, a day before the press-con, he insisted he was still running for governor when asked by reporters about the rumor of an impending switch. He waved his certificate of candidacy or COC to show he was telling the truth. The next day, he admitted he was sliding down to vice governor.
Was he scared of the “exodus” of mayors to the other side? Maybe not, a Capitol watcher says, “Junjun was being practical and shrewd. He responded to a critical situation.”
Assured: VG bet’s wedding
Expect the unexpected. That seemed to be the message of Representative Gwen Garcia when she unwrapped her team’s candidate for vice governor: Marie Daphne Salimbangon.
She ran for mayor of Bogo City in 2013 but lost to Celestino Martinez Jr. and in 2016 ran for councilor in the same city but also lost. Maybe she’d do better this time, as “public service runs in her blood.” She’s telling her would-be husband the wedding would push through after the elections, win or lose, a Freeman story says.
Surprise pulled: Roque for senator
Another surprise, this time not about his former boss, President Duterte, but about himself. After filing his COC for party-list representative of Luntian Pilipinas, Harry Roque decided to run for senator instead.
In two ways, he is disobeying Duterte:
* Duterte had told him not to run for senator as he would not win; and
* Roque is running not under Duterte’s party, PDP-Laban, which had included him in its official slate, but under People’s Reform Party of the late senator Miriam Defensor Santiago.
“Back and forth, will run, will not run, will run,” that’s how the president described his former presidential spokesman. Wonder not where he learned that.
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