AS THE political season continues to sizzle, administration candidates of the Liberal Party, led by its standard-bearer Mar Roxas and his running mate Rep. Leni Robredo (3rd District, Camarines Sur), will visit vote-rich Cebu on March 3, Wednesday.
The party’s local officials headed by LP Cebu Provincial Chairman, Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, are in a frenzy coordinating with the LP national headquarters to finalize the schedules and itinerary for the campaign sortie.
Since the start of the campaign period for national candidates last Feb. 9, the LP standard-bearer and his running mate have not yet visited Cebu, known as a vote-rich island and a favorite place of national candidates to visit. Only presidential aspirants Jejomar Binay, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Rodrigo Duterte have done campaign sorties in Cebu since the kickoff of the campaign period.
Binay, standard-bearer of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), was in Cebu City last Feb. 16 for the signing of an alliance between his party and the Garcia-led One Cebu with over 3,000 in attendance.
Duterte of PDP-Laban was in Cebu earlier this week and visited exporters in Mactan Island before returning to his roots in Danao City.
Defensor-Santiago of the People’s Reform Party visited students at the Banilad Campus of the University of Cebu last Friday.
Before the campaign period started, however, there have been frequent visits by Binay and Roxas while other senatorial aspirants attended the Sinulog Grand Parade last month.
Senatorial candidates
Davide said there will be senatorial candidates who will accompany Roxas and Robredo for the campaign sortie.
“We are still finalizing our plan in coordination with campaign staff from the national headquarters,” he told reporters this week.
But it is already certain that part of the itinerary is a visit to Mandaue City and Toledo City, Davide added, saying it will “definitely be a big gathering”.
Toledo City
Meanwhile, Toledo City Mayor John Henry “Sonny” Osmeña, a vocal supporter of Binay, said he supported the vice president because the latter knows how to interact with local officials like him. He said Binay had visited Toledo City at least three times and had asked him what he needed from him.
He said that unlike Binay, Roxas served in various positions in government in the last six years but hardly dealt with local officials. He said while Roxas visited Cebu several times, he only stayed in Cebu City and never came to Toledo City.
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