Is Davide already allied with Garcia?

If so, that is good news for me. Whenever I go home to the seventh district, where I have my ancestral homeland and where many relatives reside, or to the second district, where I was born and have some friends, I am always asked this question: Are our two leaders, Gwen and Junjun already united for the 2025 elections? My answer is always blowing in the wind, my answer is blowing in the wind. I even jokingly retorted: Let us ask Mayor Mike Rama.

The political winds are still quite hazy in their directions. The vice governor is silent and has not been very visible in the last three years. Well, that is really his nature as a person, well-behaved, restrained and enigmatic. He is very difficult to fathom as his smiles are not too unlike those of Mona Liza, that seem to convey more questions than answers. He never talks against the governor although people know that they belong to different political parties. Junjun, as he is called as term of endearment, has remained a team player and always supported the governor in all her initiatives, whether it was about the provincial protocols on Covid, or on other issues like the BRT, where he disagreed with his old ally, Mayor Mike Rama, and took side with the governor.

It is very difficult to disagree with the governor. She is very powerful and knows how to use her powers. She has the guts, the grit and the gumption to oppose the impositions of national officials, and rightly so, for they are not familiar with the realities on the ground. Whenever the governor speaks, she is backed up with researched data, she has the statistics at her fingertips and she is more articulate than any of her lawyer brothers. She is really the daughter of my highly esteemed Noy Pabling, who was an excellent parliamentarian as deputy speaker like herself. She is also the daughter of Mana Inday, the  CFI Judge, and the founder of the most successful credit coop in the country.

Governor Gwen is not a lawyer but she can berate any lawyer who crosses her way. I did not call her the iron lady for no reason and the dragon butterfly from Dumanjug if I did not know her caliber. That is why she is the first and only female Cebu governor. She has done many things never done before. The vice governor did the correct thing when he allowed Governor Gwen to shine while he silently and without much fanfare, did his job well as presiding officer of the Provincial Board. He is well-loved and highly respected by the board members. But when the election comes, when the rubber hits the road, most of these guys will most probably be in the party of the governor. Therein lies the funds. You cannot win without funds no matter how handsome you are.

The vice governor will run on the basis of his unblemished integrity, his silent and unassuming ways, his self-effacing and humble attitude and manners, his honesty and sincerity, and his performance as well. But all these may not make one candidate win if elections are going to be decided by money, organization and voting machines. That is why the hopes and prayers of the people from the second and seventh districts are that the governor and the vice governor should enter into a tactical alliance in 2025. That is if Junjun is not running for congressman. But even so, the two can still have a modus vivendi. Governor Gwen is from the seventh and third district. The Davides are from the second and are well-loved in the seventh.

I remember that in the 1960s, Noy Pabling was the Dean of the SWU College of Law and then Batasan Pambansa assemblyman Dodong Jun Davide, the vice governor's dad, was a Law Professor.The two were buddies and allies. They were both critical of Martial law. Both were famous trial lawyers. I was only a high school student and later a law student. The two legal titans were my idols inspiring me to take up law. I was a Court interpreter and I saw them clashing  with each other in court,  in the best and highest levels of legal debates comparable to senators Jovito Salonga, Arturo Tolentino and Ambrocio Padilla.

I will be one of the happiest in the second and the seventh districts if the two, the daughter of Noy Pabling and the son of Dong Jun, who are both my friends, by the way, shall run under the same ticket, That way, our folks in Argao, Ronda and Dumanjug and the rest in the south will give them the biggest majority never seen before in all history. Mark my words.