Gibo bullish on getting 1 M votes in Cebu

CARCAR CITY—Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard bearer Gibo Teodoro has expressed confidence here that the Garcia clan and his other allies here will make good on their commitment to work on delivering in his favor come May 10 some one million or 60% of the 1.8 million votes in this vote-rich province.

Buoyed by the overwhelming support that he had received from local leaders and ordinary Cebuanos alike during his two-day Cebu campaign swing, Gibo replied—when asked in a chance interview about Cebu providing the “swing” votes—that “Yung sa Cebu, hindi swing votes (The votes here are not swing votes) but main votes.”

On the possibility of snagging 60 percent of the roughly 1.8 million votes up for grabs in Cebu—as had been committed the day before by Rep. Pablo Garcia of the third congressional district—Gibo said: “Mangyayari. Malakas ang leadership ng One Cebu Party, ni Governor Gwen [Garcia], at sampu ng mga kasamahan niya dito (It will happen because of the strong leadership of One Cebu, of Governor Gwen Garcia and of all her partymates and allies here).”

The governor and congressman are the respective founder-president and secretary-general of Once Cebu, which has, since its founding in 2004, emerged as the most dominant local party in the over 400-year history of the province.

Gibo said his confidence is likewise buoyed by the solid backing he enjoys from other political kingpins in Cebu like Rep. Ramonito “Red” Durano VI, who declared Cebu a “Gibo Country”; Danao City Mayor Ramon “Nito” Durano III, and Lapu-Lapu Mayor Arturo Radaza, both of whom also declared their unflinching support for Gibo.

“Matagal na kaming nagsama ng pamilya nila Congressman at Mayor Durano (Congressman and Mayor Durano, and I go a long way),” he said.

This was Gibo’s answer when asked by reporters to comment on the pronouncement of Rep. Garcia in Toledo City the other day that his family and One Cebu are campaigning hard for Gibo so they could deliver 60 percent of the province’s 1.8 million votes in his favor in next month’s balloting.

Rep. Garcia also told reporters in Toledo City that a new survey commissioned by One Cebu will be out next week and Gibo is expected to be No. 1 in this mock poll.

In 2004, it is believed that President Arroyo defeated her chief poll rival, the late Fernando Poe Jr., partly on the back of the one million votes that her local allies led by the Garcias had delivered to her in that year’s presidential race.

In rallies in Argao and Carcar City, Gov. Garcia called on all Cebuanos to “totally support Gibo so that we’ll have total reconciliation in the country.”

In a two-day swing across the province last Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 100,000 people combined flocked to the different rallies and other engagements of the former defense secretary.

The campaign offensive was capped Wednesday night by the attendance of more than 30,000 people in Mandaue City, who braved rainfall to listen to Gibo talk about the road to change and a better Philippines.

Gov. Garcia, Rep. Garcia and their father, Deputy Speaker Pablo John Garcia led the mammoth crowd in an overwhelming show of support for the former defense secretary that bolstered the Garcias’ claim that this vote-rich province is “Gibo country.”

She noted in her speeches that the decision of their family and of One Cebu to choose Gibo as the local party’s presidential candidate passed through a careful and thorough selection process.

“It was a tough and heavy decision,” she said.

Gov. Garcia noted that they had applied the principles of One Cebu in the decision to support Gibo.

“The principles of One Cebu demands excellence, competence, integrity and good governance. And above all, the principles of One Cebu are founded on a very cohesive bond that binds us all, [which is] unity,” she said. -30-