Ang Probinsiyana, Gov Gwen

It is an acceptable proposition that the thing Filipinos most dabble in next to basketball is politics. Well, that the reverse may be true only strengthens our pre-occupancy with this democratic process called elections. One incident few nights ago tended to support my theory. While I was viewing the news program of ABS-CBN called TV Patrol, I noticed the plug that its serialized soap opera entitled “Ang Probinsiyano” would follow after the news. Actually, I was a follower of that show until some members of the House of Representatives, on a plethora of confused reasoning, mainly politics, refused to grant a franchise to the network. The plug that evening rekindled my interest in Cardo Dalisay. But, as I was trying to reconnect to Coco Martin, a telephone call came. On the other end of the line, a friend wove into the title of the TV action-drama series a political angle. He talked about Ang Probinsiyana, highlighting the female gender. In a surprising twist, he conversed not about the male Cardo but on a female political leader whom he named as Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.

 In the last two decades, the Cebuano members of the Philippine Senate were two Osmeña grandsons of the late President Sergio Osmeña Sr. Senator Sonny, who recently passed away, led the way in many an intelligent legislative debate. Friends of mine labelled him an adroit politician. His cousin, Sen. Serge, perceptively more Manileño than Cebuano, was the other senator. After talking briefly but reverently on Sonny and Serge, my caller mentioned that 2022 is about the time we send a blue-blooded Bisaya, but not an Osmeña, to the upper chamber. According to him, he is pushing for Gwen and believe me, he has my concurrence for I too think that the lady governor can be a good senator. Did not my friend show his predisposition for politics than most other major social issues like COVID-19?

The total voting population of Cebu Province, where Gwen holds sway, makes it her veritable launching pad. There are more than three million voters in the province. The electors of highly-urbanized cities of Cebu City, about 700,000; Mandaue City, 220,000; and Lapu-Lapu City, 215,000 or a combined number of over 1,100,000 can constitute good statistical basis for Gwen’s senatorial aspiration. The lessons of President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016 elections, here in the entire Cebu Island, blaze the electoral trail the Probinsiyana can follow.

In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte, running under a supposedly less-organized party, ran roughshod over the presumably highly-oiled Liberal Party. PDP-Laban was comparably speaking, then a Lilliputian. In the eventual tally, Roxas’ over half a million votes, did not even get one half of Duterte’s over one million. On Duterte’s battle cry “Bisaya ni”, he needed no other propaganda spiel. Perhaps the regionalistic Cebuanos wanted the Bisaya Duterte to win over Ilongo Roxas. Let me repeat that this is a good track open for the lady governor.

Aside from her political opponents, (and they are not few) there are Gwen detractors, of course, given her high brow. But, no matter what her adversaries say of her, we can be sure that the interest of Cebu and the Cebuanos ranks high in her agenda such that we can forget our different political colors and give her the volume of voters we supported Duterte with in 2016. Wrapped in the label Ang Probinsiyana, Gov Gwen is a true-Blue Cebuana compared to Duterte’s Bisaya claim. If you agree, then there is a better chance you, like me, will blacken Gwen’s number in the ballot’s senatorial candidates in 2022.