WHAT seems to have happened in the past few days when the attention of the top players of the presidential derby were turned elsewhere, was the shift in the political edge the front runners in the race were enjoying in the past weeks.
While the electorate had their attention to the national capital region for indications of the political trend, this time around, it turned to Cebu.
Nacionalista Party standard bearer has gotten the support of the dominant political family in vote-rich Cebu.
A number of the island province’s leaders have swung around and threw its support to the NP.
Cebu’s role
Such a shift in the political balance among the ascendant presidential aspirants who are now frantically going through the width and breadth of the more than seven thousand island republic, scrounging around for the winning votes, has pushed Cebu to the level of a political gold mine.
Note that Cebu has the biggest number of registered voters among the provinces in south, while Pangasinan province holds that coveted honor in the north.
Certainly, a presidential candidate who could claim assured support of majority of the votes in Cebu could have the psychological bargaining point to persuade the leaders in the other regions of the Visayas and Mindanao.
Crack
There is, however, a precarious variable in the announced agreement.
The governor, who is behind the organization of One Cebu party through which the Garcia political strength had been consolidated, and from which the family’s aura of political dominance emanates, did not clearly show her hand in the agreement.
Thus, somehow, the much ballyhooed political coup appears flawed, exposing as it does a political kink that may become eventually a crack in the concrete wall that ensures protection of the agreement.
But regardless of who the Cebuanos will eventually support in May, the fact remains that this island province has given notice that henceforth it will have a significant say in the outcome of presidential elections in this republic.