Villar, Legarda ‘part ways’ to cover more ground

by Michael Lim Ubac (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100223-254914/Villar-Legarda-part-ways-to-cover-more-ground

TAGUM CITY, Philippines — How do you traverse the length and breadth of the nation's 7,107 islands in three months?

Part ways.

The Nacionalista Party campaign has shifted to high gear, with its standard-bearer Manuel Villar, his running mate Loren Legarda and senatorial candidates farming out in different vote-rich provinces starting this week to maximize time.

Buoyed by the wild reception of voters during their week-long sorties in four provinces in the Visayas last week, the party candidates parted ways, in the meantime, to have as much exposure to voters in the grassroots as possible while top polling firms Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia gather data this week for their next national surveys.
“This is part of our strategy to maximize time. We have five days a week together and two days to go around, where we try to help each other in separate areas,” said Legarda, who separately met with Tagum City Mayor Rey Uy and his brother, Compostela Valley Governor Arturo "Chiongkee" Uy, and Governors Rodolfo del Rosario here late Monday.

Ironically, neither of the three local executives are members of Villar's NP or Legarda's Nationalist People's Coalition.

Is she raiding administration and opposition camps at the same time?

“They are my friends. I am campaigning for the tandem and the whole slate,” responded Legarda, who also met with former Representative Ruy Lopez, an NPC candidate for congressman in Davao City's third district.

Villar, for his part, targeted the towns of Ormoc and Baybay and Tacloban City in Leyte, leading a motorcade and market visits on Tuesday.

Former Cavite representative Gilbert Remulla, an NP senatorial candidate, had his own sortie in the area, but decided to join Villar's motorcade later on.

Other NP senatorial candidates had their own sorties.

Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Satur Ocampo and Gabriela Partylist Representative Liza Maza, both senatorial bets of NP, motored to Tarlac, eating a poor man's dish with farmers in Sta. Rita, and visiting markets in Bamban and Tarlac City.

Senators Pia Cayetano and Miriam Defensor-Santiago had private meetings in Manila, their staff said on Tuesday.

From Cebu City, Legarda flew directly to Davao City on Monday, and motored for an hour to this city, where she held a multisectoral forum with health workers, indigenous peoples and transport organizations, among others. Prior to the two-day Cebu sortie, Legarda was with Villar in Capiz, Aklan and Iloilo.

A flurry of other activities ensued, rivaling the fast-paced journey of contestants of the world-famous television show, "Amazing Race."

On Monday, she attended a music festival in the soon-to-be-completed Tagum City Hall, where she met with thousands of students and parents, and witnessed the colorful opening of the annual National Schools Press Conference, a writing competition for secondary campus writers.

In an impromptu speech, she proudly announced that she had filed a bill to increase the take home pay of teachers, eliciting applause from the 4,000 delegates and their advisers, and about a thousand officials of the Department of Education (DepEd).

But what delighted the crowd was her pronouncement denouncing the “poison text” messages falsely saying that she had filed a bill seeking to abolish the summer vacation of teachers.

“That's a propaganda. I will not do that. I will always push for the welfare and protection of teachers,” declared Legarda, pointing out that she had even pushed for a measure increasing the entry level pay of teachers to P19,000 to be a par with their counterparts in the private sector.

She said she helped pass the 2010 national budget of DepEd.

The following day, the seemingly indefatigable Legarda led a motorcade en route to Toril Poblacion, Davao City, where she pressed flesh in the central market and held a dialogue with political leaders of the city's District 3.

She also motored to the nearby Grand Menseng Hotel for a meeting with Liga ng Mga Barangay members of Sarangani province (League of Villages).

In less than two days, Legarda claimed that was able to secure the support of Region 11—Davao Region composed of Compostela Valley (Comval), Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Davao Oriental.

The region, which has a combined population of 1.363 million, has four cities—Davao in Davao del Sur, Tagum in Davao del Norte, Mati in Davao Oriental and Digos is Davao del Sur.

“I had meetings with mayors and governors, including leaders from Davao del Norte and Del Sur, Comval and Tagum City, and secured the support of local leaders of Region 11 for the Villar-Legarda ticket,” said Legarda in an interview.

“From the beginning, we talked about the fact that we can't be together seven days a week because we can't cover the whole Philippines, so we will be together around five days a week and two days meetings in Manila for invitations to speak in separate areas, but carrying the whole team,” said Legarda.
Lest it will be misinterpreted as factionalism, Legarda quickly clarified that the separate campaign sorties were part of the overall strategy to cover as much bases as possible in such a short time.

“Because we know ourselves. It's such a cohesive, supportive, cooperative team, and Manny and I are mature and confident adults who don't relish intrigues and that is not our kind of politics,” she said.

“Manny is a builder literally and figuratively, I am one too. I am not only a builder, but a nurturer. So you put a builder and nurturer together and you have a prosperous and compassionate nation,” said Legarda.

“From Day One of campaign from Laguna and Cavite to Western and Central Visayas and Southern Mindanao, we have already felt and see the momentum and the pulse of the people. We are sincerely grateful and we will see continued and even greater support in the coming months,” said Legarda.

The warm reception of the people was a stark contrast to survey ratings in which the Villar-Legarda tandem lagged behind the Liberal Party tandem.

“The real survey is what we see on the ground. You the media see it. The people around us see it, so the people know the real score,” she said.

Next stop for NP is the Pangasinan-Baguio sortie, which will start Friday.