The Calderons should give way to Gungun Gicae

The younger generations, the students and the youth in general, the civil society, and the silent majority that control two thirds of the voting populace in Cebu’s 7th District, are sick and tired of traditional politicians whose style of governance is transactional, paternalistic, and lacking in progressive and strategic thinking. The Calderons have controlled the district since the fall of Sol Abines, the worst trapo of them all.

I have always referred to the 7th District as the DRAMMBAG, an acronym that I coined to mean Dumanjug, Ronda, Alcantara, Moalboal, Malabuyoc, Badian, Alegria, and Ginatilan, the eight towns in the southwest, which has for the longest time, remained the poorest in economic development among the seven congressional districts in the whole province of Cebu.

The 7th District has never been well-known as a flood-prone area, and yet it has been in recent years the biggest recipient of public works projects and flood-control allocations in the whole province of Cebu. The 7th District has beaten the most populated district, the 1st District, represented by the Gullases. It happened that the former congressman, husband of the incumbent, was a vice chairman of the House appropriation committee and a close friend of the former chair as well as of the former speaker.

The most promising and rising star of the district is no other than the dynamic, passionate, and progressive thinking mayor of Dumanjug, Guntrano Efren “Gungun” Gica, son of the great trial lawyer, Ateneo graduate, Edgar Gica and his beauteous wife, Madam Marna Zozobrado Gica. Gungun has transformed Dumanjug from a sleepy, laid-back municipality into a progressive center of commerce, education, and cultural events. Gungun has done to Dumanjug what the Calderons have failed to do for the whole district.

Gungun Gica has beaten the Garcias, siblings of the former governor, Gwen Garcia, and children of the late iconic Noy Pabling Garcia. The Gicas also triumphed over the Baricuatros led by Sarsi Baricuatro, former mayor and now a member of the Provincial Board. Gica is a hands-on leader, very strict when it comes to discipline but very compassionate to the poor. He is the true descendant of his lolo, the late mayor Guntrano “Noy Ano” Gica, one of the strongest pillars of the old Dumanjug.

Dumanjug has a population of 60,000 with 37 barangays, and 40,000 voters. Ronda has 21,500 people, 14 barangays, and 16,000 voters. Alcantara, the smallest, has only 17,500 people, nine barangays, and 12,600 voters. Moalboal has a population of 38,000, 15 barangays, and 25,000 voters. Malabuyoc has 20,500 people, 14 barangays, and 15,000 voters. Badian has a 45,000 population, and 30,000 voters in 29 barangays. Alegria has 26,500 people, nine barangays, and 18,000 voters. Ginatilan has a population of 17,300, with 14 barangays, and 12,500 voters.

Under the Calderons, the poverty incidence of the eight towns has experienced a little improvement. The district has not seen a long-range strategic plan to improve the economy. There are no jobs nor any enterprise that gives enough livelihood to the people. The young need to migrate for work and there is no concrete, much less cohesive and coherent development plan for the district. The leadership of Gungun Gica can spur tremendous progress to the people in the eight towns.

The 7th District is poorer than the 2nd District, and is very far away compared to the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth districts. It is time that the people should find another leader who has a vision, has a strategy and has the dynamism and the passion of a young and forward-looking, progressive thinking man of action. There is no other in the district who has all these qualities. Thus, the Calderons should step aside if they really love this southwestern jewel of Cebu.