My senatorial bets and my local candidates

We are now at the last corner of his presidential and local race for the 2016 elections and we have never seen so much mudslinging with our presidential bets. It is more than obvious to me that the main target in these last few days is the frontrunner of the Presidential race, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in order to bring down his hefty lead over the rest. We know that the last one came from Aquino's barking dog, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who accused Duterte of having billions in his Bank of the Philippine Islands bank account in the Julia Vargas Branch.

Well, the Philippine Star came up with the headline yesterday "Duterte bares 2014 bank account balance" and it reveals that the account only has P17,816.98. Of course this is not the 2015 account, which BPI officials said that they would reveal after seven days. But then elections would be over and done with by the time this is made public. But clearly, the effort is to bring down Mayor Duterte.

The Duterte camp also issued an official statement which goes, "Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano today denounced the growing black propaganda being thrown against his running mate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, in an effort to ruin the mayor's image as a leading presidential candidate. Cayetano on Wednesday warned of the possible airing of tens of millions worth of anti-Duterte advertisements in television station ABS-CBN on Friday (May 6), three days before the upcoming national elections.

He revealed that an undisclosed reliable source informed their camp about the airing of the anti-Duterte spots. The insider further claimed that the deal was rejected by other TV networks, but ABS-CBN's ethics committee allegedly "blindly approved" the offer." The mayor's rivals are obviously afraid, and so they are resorting to these cheap stunts to try and bring his image down," Cayetano said. "They are so desperate that, aside from the full barrage of tri-media attacks against Mayor Duterte, they are now trying to push for millions in advertisements in major networks in the last few days of the campaign," he added."

Well, May 9 is just a few days away and I still believe that even if ABS-CBN poured those negative ads against Mayor Duterte, the millions of his supporters will no longer change their minds. Many of them are voting for Duterte because he is the only candidate promising real change, while the other presidentiables are promising most of the same thing. Take a look at Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, his slogan is the continuity of Daang Matuwid, which the majority of the Filipino are simply sick and tired of. No wonder he is rating low in the surveys.

Now Pulse Asia revealed that Mar Roxas has now placed second in their latest survey for April 25-29. I dare say that this is hogwash! We have said so many times before that SWS and Pulse Asia are just doing mind-conditioning for the Filipino people with their surveys were they do not reveal how the questions were asked. They are part and parcel of the yellow propaganda machinery. These pollsters have all lost their credibility.

With a few days to go in this campaign, allow me to mention my candidates for councilors for the north district. They are Jun Alcover, Atty. Raymund Garcia, Ramil Ayuman Joel Garganera, Jerry Guardo, Alvin Dizon, Mary Ann delos Santos and Gary Lao. For the South District, they are Gerry Carillo for congressman, Renato Osmeña, Jr. Dave Tumulak, Edu Rama, Joey Daluz, Joy Pesquera, James Cuenco, Eugenio Gabuya, Jr. and Margarita Osmeña. No, I'm not voting 100 percent for the simple reason that democracy works better if there is an opposition as there should be fiscalizers from within. So now, it is time for the Bando-Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan councilors to taste what life should be in the minority. Of course for Mayor there's Mayor Michael Rama and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella.

For my senatorial candidates, let me reiterate that on top of my list is Richard "Dick" Gordon, Migz Zubiri, Tito Sotto, Rep. Martin Romualdez, Roman Romulo, Edu Manzano, Raffy Alunan, Princess Jacel Kiram, Sen. Ralph Recto and Atty. Greco Belgica, whom we owe our votes because he was responsible in filing cases against the Priority Development Assistance Fund and the Disbursement Acceleration Program which was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2014.

Incidentally, I got this information from the internet that the Duterte camp will be having a show of force on May 7 from all the major plazas and open spaces all over the country for the people to show their support for the mayor. The idea is to bring Philippine flags and do a major photo op for the social media so that the world would know the massive support of the Filipino people for Mayor Duterte. In Cebu City it will be held at the Plaza Independencia. Would this be a practice for the upcoming People's Power III? Just pray for our nation and people that we would chose the right leader.

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