Rep. Gwen Garcia vows 12-0 victory for Hugpong bets in Cebu

LILOAN, Cebu — Cebu Representative Gwen Garcia, the ruling party PDP-Laban candidate for governor here, has vowed a landslide victory for the administration slate Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) in the vote rich province.

Garcia, who served as Cebu governor from 2004 to 2013, made the pronouncement after Garcia’s One Cebu local party inked an alliance agreement with HNP chaired by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Garcia cited that One Cebu party has been able to field full slate of candidates in all the seven districts, 44 towns and seven cities of Cebu province, both incumbent and new challengers, who will campaign for and deliver over two million votes for the administration candidates for the Senate.

“Cebu province has 2.15 million voters…plus [chartered] Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu, that would be 2.8 million. I speak for Cebu province, and we have very strong candidates. Basta walang papasok [na galing] sa kabila,” Garcia said.

“We commit to deliver the votes and show our support to the chosen senatorial candidates of the President because we have always been supportive of President Duterte. The HNP candidates will be the strong voice of our President in the Senate. Kaya One Cebu, kasi nagkakaisa kami rito,” Garcia added.

Based on Commission on Elections records, Cebu province—including the chartered cities of Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City—has at least three million registered voters, making the province the top ranked vote rich province in the country.

HNP is fielding 13 Senate bets or one candidate more than the 12 Senate seats at stake, but Garcia assured the public that such situation won’t be a problem.

“Basta walang papasok [galing] sa kabila. Let them (13) fight it out, basta walang papasok [sa Top 12 na galing] dun sa kabila,” she said.

Garcia was referring to the opposition slate Otso Diretso which is only composed of eight candidates.

Likewise, Garcia also said that HNP’s alliance with the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) won’t affect One Cebu’s standing among the voters.

“We [in One Cebu] is a local party, while NPC is a national party. It would be comparing apples and oranges,” Garcia said.

Gubernatorial bid

Meanwhile, Sara Duterte is backing the gubernatorial bid of Garcia, even raising the the hand of Garcia during the HNP campaign stop here.

“Governor Gwen, I believe I owe you a photo. Come on,” Sara said in Bisaya, afterwhich she raised the hand of Garcia.

“Now, since HNP’s resources are limited, kindly be the one to print our photo, governor, for the tarpaulins, and kindly also include the HNP senators there,” Sara added.

Garcia’s bid for Cebu governor was also endorsed by President Duterte during a PDP-Laban rally in Cebu last February.  Both Garcia and the President are members of PDP-Laban.

Garcia was all smiles over the endorsement, saying that Sara’s gesture carries a lot of weight.

“I feel very, very lucky that I got the endorsement of the President and the Presidential daughter because this comes at the heels of someone who is claiming to have been endorsed by Sara. What she said was meaningful,” Garcia said.

But Garcia is still facing graft charges at the Sandiganbayan.

In November 2018, the Sandiganbayan affirmed the filing of graft and malversation cases vs. Garcia over Cebu provincial government’s purchase of a 24.92-hectare Balili property in Tiga-an, Naga Cebu in 2008 for Cebu’s human settlement and seaport project.

Based on a land survey conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the 19.67 hectares of the said Balili property were submerged in water and unfit for the intended projects. — RSJ, GMA News