Gathering of party members set on Feb. 8
One Cebu, the main political opposition in Cebu province, has decided to go all out for the presidential bid of Vice President Jejomar Binay following a closed-door lunch meeting with the party’s top leaders yesterday.
Binay quietly flew into Cebu before noon yesterday and immediately proceeded to the Cebu Sports Club at the Cebu Business Park where he met with One Cebu party leaders from 11:30 a.m. to around 2 p.m.
Winston Garcia, the party’s gubernatorial candidate, confirmed the meeeting and his party decision to throw its full support behind the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) standard bearer.
“Yes, we have decided. We (in One Cebu) are solid behind Binay,” Garcia told CEBU DAILY NEWS in a phone interview.
According to Garcia, One Cebu will formally declare its support for Binay in a gathering of about a thousand party members on Feb. 8 at the convention hall of the Waterfront Hotel in Barangay Lahug.
All One Cebu candidates – from municipal councilors to congressional district bets – and their allied barangay captains are expected to attend the gathering, said Garcia.
The confirmation ended speculations about the likely presidential choice of One Cebu, with members torn among three contenders – Binay, Senator Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
“We have done done exhaustive consultations with Cebuanos from all walks of life and from all sectors of society. The overwhelming choice as President for them and for us at One Cebu is no less than VP Binay,” said Garcia in a separate statement jointly released last night by the Binay-Garcia camps.
Garcia said the meeting with Binay was attended by members of his family led by their patriach, former Cebu governor and congressman Pablo “Pabling” Garcia.
Also present were Winston’s siblings – Gwendolyn, former governor and now reelectionist for the third congressional district; Pablo John, former third district representative who is now running for the congressional seat in the newly created seventh district; and Nelson, who is seeking reelection as mayor of Dumanjug.
Winston said the meeting also included One Cebu’s vice gubernatorial candidate and former sixth district Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz; fourth district’s reelectionist Rep. Benhur Salimbangon; Mandaue City mayoral candidate Lollipop Ouano; last-term Liloan Mayor Vincent “Duke” Frasco, who is now running for vice mayor in tandem with his wife Christina, Gwen’s daughter, as the mayoral candidate; and Paulos Cañete, sixth district congressional bet of One Cebu.
Gwen, reached through her public information officer Jeanette Malinao, declined to comment on this development in Cebu’s political landscape.
Nelson Garcia, in a text message to CDN, confirmed he attended the meeting with Binay but he also declined to disclose details.
When asked how One Cebu’s support would translate to votes for Binay from the estimated 2.5 million voters of Cebu province, Winston expressed confidence the party would be able to deliver the goods for Binay.
He pointed out that One Cebu, outside of the administration’s Liberal Party (LP), is the only other party that has a presence and political machinery in all the seven districts of the province.
He also said that unlike LP, One Cebu’s marchinery would be more reliable “because we only have one candidate and will support only one candidate.”
Garcia claimed his opponent, reelectionist Gov. Hilario Davide III (LP), allegedly still met with Poe and her runningmate, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, while openly supporting the LP’s standard bearer, Mar Roxas.
Binay’s unscheduled visit in Cebu was apparently just intended to meet with the Garcia family and their allies, CDN learned from sources.
Binay reportedly cancelled all his schedules for Monday when he was informed the Garcia family and One Cebu leaders were willing to meet him, the sources said.
Binay arrived at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) at 10:23 a.m. on board a commercial flight and was met by a known ally, suspended Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.
After the meeting with One Cebu leaders, Binay took a short walk at the nearby Ayala Mall and mingled with mall goers before proceeding to meet with Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.
Binay would have wanted to also meet with Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma but he was not available as the prelate has gone to Manila to accompany Charles Cardinal Maung Bo, the Papal Legate to the just concluded International Eucharistic Congress (EIC), who paid a courtesy call to President Benigno Aquino III at Malacañang on Monday morning, said Msgr. Joseph Tan, spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Cebu.
Binay, according to sources, was also scheduled to visit the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) district minister but no INC official could be reached to confirm this information.
Binay later had a private dinner hosted by Rama at his family’s compound in Barangay Basak starting at around 8 p.m. At least four tables were set up at an open area inside the compound.
Team Rama’s candidates for councilor and Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella were present in the dinner that sources described as “a private and intimate event.”
Binay was scheduled to take a flight back to Manila at 8:55 a.m. today, according to the sources.
Winston, in his statement, meanwhile said that his party decided to support Binay as “he’s the most experienced to lead the Philippines in the next six years.”
Garcia also claimed that the very accusations being thrown against Binay have put in the foreground his being “mature, not being easily given to emotion and his trust and faith in the justice system.”
“I and the majority of the members of One Cebu believe that the Vice President would answer at the right time and at the right venue – the courts of law – the issues that have been raised against him,” he said in the statement.
Garcia said that he become convinced that Binay was the right choice for One Cebu because of the latter’s support for major projects that he hoped to accomplish should he win as governor. Among them, he said, would be new international container port and a Light Rail Transit (LRT) that will connect Metro Cebu and its neighboring areas via a modern train system.
“We closely looked at VP Binay’s platform and I see his administration getting wide support from the private sector in effecting inclusive economic growth, the kind that is felt by the poorest of the poor because jobs that put food on the table are generated,” Garcia separately said in a statement.
“Sadly, the purported economic gains being touted is not being felt by the majority of our countrymen. If Binay was able to improve the lot of the poor in Makati, he as President can surely do more to ease poverty in the urban and rural centers,” he said.