GOING over the official list of candidates of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for provincial officials and House representatives in Cebu, I found out that only four are running under the Liberal Party (LP). They are Gov. Junjun Davide, who swapped places with his vice governor, Agnes Magpale, and Provincial Board (PB) member candidates Jonathan Villegas (first district), Raci Franco (fourth district) and Erick Gica (seventh district).
There is no LP candidate for congressman in the province. Old party stalwarts have sought shelter elsewhere. Former Bogo mayor Junie Martinez is seeking his old fourth district seat under the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) while Second District Rep. Wilfredo Caminero is running for reelection under the National Unity Party.
Next to the PDP-Laban, the NPC has the most number of candidates for congressman in Cebu. The other NPC bets for the House are Geraldine Yapha (3rd district), Red Durano (5th district), Baldomero Estenzo (6th district) and Peter John Calderon (7th district).
For the PB, the NPC candidates are Tata Salvador (2nd district), Gigi Sanchez (3rd district), Miko Pacheco (4th district), Edith Cabahug (6th district), Dong Baricuatro (7th district) and Jerome Librando (7th district).
I don’t have the Comelec list of the candidates for municipal and city positions but I’m sure they follow the same pattern. Those who won under the LP in the last elections but bolted to the PDP-Laban immediately thereafter only to find out that they cannot be the official candidates of President Duterte’s party for one reason or another are now with NPC.
It’s a tactical move that also reflects the depths that the LP has sunk into from its former perch as the party in power under the Aquino administration. That was the time when then candidate Tomas Osmeña had a shouting match with then LP president Mar Roxas in an uptown restaurant over who between him and the then incumbent mayor Mike Rama, who was a card-bearing LP member, should get the party’s blessings in the 2013 elections.
Roxas reportedly proposed to declare Cebu City a free zone but Osmeña vehemently rejected it. Osmeña won the argument. A few days later, Roxas broke the news to Rama through a late night telephone call that ended with the latter telling his caller that, from then on, he was an enemy. Rama went on to beat Osmeña in that election. About a year or two later, I saw him turn his back to an approaching Roxas at the blessing of Gus Go’s hospital in Mandaue.
Tales of betrayal are not uncommon in Philippine politics. It is a hackneyed phrase that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, only permanent interests, but it is one that rings with the truth with every intonation. Party loyalty and principled politics are mutually exclusive.
After he was elected governor in 2013, I asked Davide if he had any plans of revitalizing the party by bringing into its fold young men and women who carried no political baggage rather than depending on leaders whose political bases were as established as their loyalties were un-moored. I can no longer recall if I got a categorical answer.
About a year ago, I met the current LP president, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, in a private dinner hosted by a mutual friend. You had your chance to reshape the political landscape by weeding out the opportunists but did not, I told him. Look what’s happening.
What was happening then was the frenzied exodus from the LP to the PDP-Laban. Now the decimation is complete. Nobody, except a few stubborn souls, wants to be known as “dilawan.”