‘Gwen gave up the chairmanship in my favor’
Nobody is being the bastonero for Cebu.”
This was how lawyer Winston Garcia, 58, described the role he wants to fill by running for Cebu governor next year.
He said the post needs an assertive leader with a clear gameplan of growth so that Cebu province can stop being treated as a “slave of Manila.”
In the family-led One Cebu political party, at least, he will have his way.
Winston yesterday said his eldest sister Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia, former Cebu governor, is giving way to him as chairperson of One Cebu although the formal party announcement and decision has yet to be made.
“Gwen has already given up the chairmanship in my favor. It’s the chairman who decides the presidential candidate (to support.),” he said in a forum with Cebu Daily News editors, columnists and reporters.
The former GSIS president described his vision of infrastructure-led progress to make Cebu province a modern transport hub like Hong Kong and Singapore.
GRACE POE
The change in One Cebu indicates a single choice ahead for the Garcia family as presidential aspirant.
That may likely be Sen. Grace Poe, who is due to announce in mid-September that she is running with Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero with the support of the Nationalist People’s Coalition.
Winston, whose San Miguel Corp. boss Eduardo “Danding” Cojuanco Jr. is NPC’s chairman emeritus, said he had a “private meeting with Poe and Escudero two times already in the house of Danding.”
The whole Garcia family supports his gubernatiorial bid in 2016, he said.
Gwen’s stepping aside from One Cebu’s helm also partly solves a potential conflict since she is a stalwart of the United Nationalist Alliances (UNA) of Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is seeking the presidency.
Her commitment to UNA “will not bind” the One Cebu party, explained Winston.
In 2010, he and his sister campaigned for different presidential candidates — he backed Manuel Villar and she supported Gilbert Teodoro. Both candidates lost to Benigno Aquino III.
IN A HURRY
For over an hour yesterday, however, Winston focused on what he said was a growth agenda for Cebu “we can no longer procrastinate about” because a window of opportunity to attract foreign investors with low interest rates “ïs slowly closing”.
“I’m in a man in a hurry…” he said, outlining reclamation, seaport and airport projects he insisted he could get started in three years and see their completion in ten.
“The president is not relevant in this quest. Winning Cebuanos to support this program is more important for me than campaigning for a president. That is my priority for now,” he said, referring to the province’s 2.5 million voters.
“After all is said and done, after we have voted our respective presidents, all of us will still be living in the same province, overtaken by the same problems,” he said, pointing to worsening traffic, “no space to expand”, and alleged neglect of a centralized government.
BIG DREAMS
Among the “big dreams” he outlined were the construction of a second runway in Mactan international airport to make Cebu an international gateway, a new international container port off the coast of Consolacion-Liloan, reclamation projects in Cordova for tourism and and a “new metropolis” in Naga-Talisay, and a Light Rail Transit to link Carcar city in the south to Danao city in the north.
Winston is expected to anchor his campaign on big infrastructure achieved “at no cost to the national government but a little support” and a call to “demand from Imperial Manila whatever Cebuanos think we need from the President.”
He said he would run a campaign of “programs and not personailities.”
The role of “bastonero” which Winston set for himself refers to the Spanish word for baton holder, a master of ceremonies, or a toughie or wields a stick.
“I”m not a typical politician,” he said.
“I don’t even know how to smile but I can get things done.”