ELECTIONS 2007: Yearlong powerplay

While surviving unrelenting attacks, such as impeachment and destabilization attempts, President Gloria Arroyo’s administration had its hands full tackling a yearlong election season in 2007.

The elections, from the legislative and local polls last May 15 to the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataang elections last October 29, were as a whole a yardstick of how much her hold of governmental rein was through halfway of her six-year term.

The overall verdict, as shown by the results of the elections, was not at all clearly to Arroyo’s favor particularly on the Senate race even as she emerged the winner in the fight for seats in the House of Representatives where most of her allies bagged the coveted posts.

On the local front where thousands of candidates vied for the positions of governor, vice governor, provincial board members, mayor, vice mayor, and councilors, the tempo did not come much from the baton of the president although there were reports about financial aids from the Palace to bolster the bids of administration candidates.

The real fight however was on determining who were on stronger grounds: The incumbents or the challengers? There were several incumbents who wagered their posts with Arroyo in their hands but some tried to win on their own strength, as if having Arroyo behind them might only boomerang to them as a liability.

In the barangay and SK elections during the last quarter of 2007, the supposedly apolitical stance of candidates was broken with many of them aligning in secrecy to the local government administration as if it was their political lifeline. Most winners found this expectations true but the others proved they could still stand tall as an opposition.

Generally, therefore, the elections in 2007 turned out to be not the expected make-or-break call to the foothold of Arroyo in Malacañang. It was like the usual political pastime but it gave no cracks at all to the Palace walls.

Cebu and Arroyo

Cebu’s support for Arroyo and her candidates have prevented a rout by the opposition, at least in its front yard, as its over 3.6 million voters gave a resounding victory to the TU bets.

Cebu has been the main backer of Arroyo when it delivered over two million votes for her to upstage the popularity of the late movie icon Fernando Poe Jr. during the residential election in 2004.

In the fight for congressional power, Arroyo got the upperhand with her allies winning a total of 117 seats (70 from Lakas-CMD and 47 from Kampi), and yielding only a total of 48 (26 from NPC, 16 from Liberal and 6 from Nacionalista Party) to the opposition. Forty two other winners came from party-lists, some of which were even reported to have links with the Palace.

In Cebu, all eight winning congressmen were Arroyo allies: Eduardo Gullas (1st district), Pablo Garcia (2nd district), Pablo John Garcia (3rd district), Benhur Salimbangon (4th district), Ramon Durano VI (5th district), Nerissa Soon Ruiz (6th district), Raul del Mar (north district, Cebu City), and Antonio Cuenco (south district, Cebu City).

Cuenco’s bid for reelection was muddled with court cases but he survived. On April 8, the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas threw out the graft and corruption charges filed against him for alleged overpricing in the procurement of government vehicles.

Salimbangon, for his part, fought successfully a close and volatile tug-of-war. On May 16, controversial canvassing of votes in Bogo was suspended following the heated tension between his supporters and his opponent Celestino “Tining” Martinez III.

Salimbangon mulled petitioning the Comelec) to declare a failure of elections in Bogo. The Comelec ruled that the 15 election returns from Bogo were “spurious and manufactured,” so it ordered an investigation, replaced the chairman of the canvassing board, and changed the venue of canvassing to the Capitol then finally to Comelec main office in Manila.

The final reckoning declared Salimbangon the winner over Martinez, ending a long political hold of the latter’s family in the fourth district and paving the way for Arroyo’s “presence” in that opposition bailiwick.

Local Elections

Cebu province has over two million voters out of over 3.6 million voters in Central Visayas. The political turf here was dominated by one of Cebu’s most influential families of politician—the Garcias – whose patriarch, former governor Pablo Garcia and his son, Pablo John, and daughter, Governor Gwendoly, declared their intentions to run for public office.

Anticipating the rather tricky alliances of candidates in a multi-party system, Gwen decided to carry her political fight by launching the local party, One Cebu, consisting of politicians who have been opposing the House bills, also known as Sugbuak bills, which sought to break Cebu into four provinces.

Gwen, together with her father and brother-politicians, has been an Arroyo ally but she managed to steer her campaign with her One Cebu’s battlecry: To stop Sugbuak legislation in Congress.

On May 20, Gwen was proclaimed winner over Sugbuak proponent Antonio Yapha, and Sanchez over another Sugbuak advocate Clavel Martinez. 

Similarly in Cebu City, Arroyo’s allies led by Mayor Tomas Osmeña were unbeatable as his running mate, Vice Mayor Michael Rama, and his complete line-up of 16 councilors under his local party, Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan swept all opposition bets off their dreams of victory.

Even in eight other cities in Cebu, the Arroyo magic carried her allies to the winners’ pedestal with the exception of two cities.

Violence in the Local Front

Elections in Cebu were not spared from violence. On May 2, Sta. Fe mayoralty candidate Rogelio Ilustrisimo Sr. was shot dead outside the Comelec provincial office after attending the hearing of a disqualification case filed against him by his rival Domingo Zaspa.

This prompted acting Cebu Provincial Police director Carmelo Valmoria to endorse Bantayan Island under Comelec control and declare the other towns in the fourth district, including Daanbantayan, election areas of concern.

On May 9, police investigators tagged Zaspa and dismissed policeman, PO1 Arnulfo Pigon Jr. the primary suspects in the killing.

Two days before Election Day, Comelec imposed a curfew on Bantayan island and a day before, policemen seized a cache of guns and ammunitions, including about P300,000 from a van reportedly owned by Cordova Mayor Arleigh Sitoy and his father Adelino. The mayor however denied ownership of the seized items, saying those were “planted” evidences.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group regional director Jose Jorge Corpus vowed to check the status of high-powered guns found in the van of Sitoy, who eventually won as Cordova mayor.

The controversy at the polls was punctuated with the resignation last October 1 of Comelec Chairman Abalos before an impeachment complaint against him in Congress was about to take place.

On November 10, the country’s political scene was stunned by the assassination of Comelec law department director Alioden Dalaig.

Brgy, SK Polls

Republic Acts 9164 and 9340 provide the holding of the synchronized barangay and SK elections last October 29, and some congressmen failed to have these postponed to 2008.

There are 3,003 barangays in Central Visayas with over three million voters for barangay officials and over 250,000 voters for SK officials. Cebu province has 1,203 barangays, including that of Cebu City, which has the most number of barangays at 80 (46 in the north district and 34 in the south).

This was where Osmeña’s hold of political power came into full play. His endorsed candidates won most barangay and SK positions leaving only 13 barangays to the opposition, led by his nemesis, the fiery Lahug barangay captain Mary Ann delos Santos.

But like other elections, these barangay level exercises were also marred by violence, harassment of voters, vote-buying, and narco-politics, proving that the game for political supremacy is much alive even in the supposedly apolitical barangays.  — Gerome M. Dalipe/RAE