Cebu guv pledges to deliver 'landslide' win for UniTeam in province
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The ruling One Cebu regional party is targeting a landslide victory for the tandem of survey frontrunners Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte in the May 9 polls.
Cebu Governor and party head Gwendolyn Garcia has committed a margin of more than 1.2 million votes in the province for both Marcos and Duterte against their closest rivals.
Garcia and so-called One Cebu Island—which now includes the cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue—promised to deliver the same landslide victory in the province that they gave to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004 and to President Duterte in 2016.
The party made the commitment after forging a covenant with the Marcos-Duterte tandem and organizing the grand rally Monday night attended by an 300,000 people, as Garcia estimated herself.
"I said I do not wish to give numbers, but if we do a little review and what happened in the past, in 2004 we delivered a margin of 1.2 million of GMA (Arroyo) over FPJ (Fernando Poe Jr.)... In 2016, One Cebu supported the candidacy of President Duterte and if you look at the numbers again we gave President Duterte a margin—and im not talking about the number of votes but the margin over Mar Roxas—to the tune of 1.2 million votes again," Garcia told reporters in an ambush interview after the eight-hour event.
"This time as you can see it's Cebu Province and Cebu Island including cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue - One Cebu Island. That's our commitment we signed a covenant last April 12. So I don't wish to give a number but I dare say we can deliver a much higher margin," she said.
Cebu remains the most vote-rich province in the upcoming elections with about 3.2 million registered voters.
The One-Cebu organized sortie titled "UniTeam Festival Rally" at City Di Mare, Filinvest Grounds was co-organized by Lakas-CMD. House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez and Tingog party-list headed by Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, who are kin of Marcos, lead the latter political organization.
Explaining her estimate, Garcia gave an allowance of one square meter per person filling a 30-hectare area can number at least 300,000.
Marcos and Duterte both thanked One Cebu and their supporters for supporting their tandem. "I know many of you have been waiting here for hours under the heat of the sun that's why we now have this biggest rally in our campaign so far," Marcos told the crowd in his speech.
Duterte, meanwhile, said: "We do not know what will happen but I will always be truly grateful to your support to my candidacy."
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