From Manila Bulletin
With Lakas-Kampi-CMD accounting for 70 percent of 19,000 candidates running for elective posts, party officials ignored little drawbacks that caused the defection of two governors and remained upbeat of a dramatic poll bounce for their standard bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro in the May 10 elections.
Party leaders said that barely one week after the local campaign started, the overpowering grassroots machinery of the administration party started to give Teodoro vast improvements in mock polls and tracking surveys of presidential preferences.
Massive crowd of supporters has been noted in hectic campaign sorties held in various places in Cebu, Tarlac, Laguna, Quezon, Batangas Caloocan City, and Quezon City that Teodoro attended since Friday.
Despite losing the support of former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson, Teodoro maintained an optimistic stance, strongly believing that the vaunted Solid North will remain faithful to the political cause of their fellow Ilocano.
Lawyer and former press secretary Mike Toledo said “the formidable political machinery of Lakas-Kampi-CMD now comes into play as our local candidates and their ward leader’s start campaigning hard for Gibo to ensure his victory.”
“About two-thirds of almost 19,000 candidates running for local elective posts in the May 10 elections belong to Lakas-Kampi-CMD,” said Toledo, who is now Teodoro’s spokesman and director of the Gibo 2010 Media Bureau.
Immediately after the official local campaign period opened on Friday, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia introduced Teodoro to at least 10,000 supporters in Argao as the presidential candidate of One Cebu, the strongest and most influential local political party in the province.
A day earlier, Laguna Gov. Luningning Lazaro gathered 26 mayors and 22 vice mayors from 30 towns to declare her choice of Teodoro as the presidential candidate that must be backed by them.
Garcia and Lazaro were just two of the 51 governors, many of them from the country’s vote-rich provinces, who threw their support behind Teodoro’s presidential bid and vowed to campaign for the former defense secretary so they can deliver “the highest possible number of votes” for him in their respective localities come Election Day.
Besides Garcia, the rest of the governors who had signed the pro-Gibo manifesto include Governors Amado Espino of Pangasinan, Isidro Zayco of Negros Occidental, Teresita Lazaro of Laguna and Aurelio Umali of Nueva Ecija, Michael Keon of Ilocos Norte; Deogracias Victor Savellano of Ilocos Sur; Casimiro Ynares III of Rizal; Joey Salceda of Albay; Jesus Typoco Jr. of Camarines Norte; Sally Ante Lee of Sorsogon; Erico Aumentado of Bohol; Salvacion Zaldivar Perez of Antique, Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar and Miguel Dominguez of Sarangani.
In Tarlac last Tuesday, the former defense chief was warmly welcomed by thousands from the congressional district of his rival and cousin, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III of Liberal Party.
It was the second time Teodoro visited his home province since March 26.
Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez reported that support for the administration presidential bet has snowballed as shown in the presence of nearly 20,000 people who attended Teodoro’s rally in Lucena City on Sunday.
Teodoro can also count on the overwhelming support of his home province of Tarlac, where he triumphantly returned like a hometown hero three times in the last five days.
Teodoro came in 1st or 2nd in the latest mock polls in universities or universities, proving anew, according to Toledo, “the apparent lock of the 1989 bar topnotcher on the votes of students and other young voters, who comprise a majority of this year’s voters.”
Also, Teodoro stamped his mark in a series of presidential preference surveys conducted nationwide by broadcast media giant Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) through the month of March, snagging first place in one city and numbers two or three in other parts of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
In a nationwide independent survey conducted by the research firm Campaigns & Image Group in the period ending March 7 or three weeks before the start of the local campaign period, Teodoro was already in second place with a 24% rating, after Sen. Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party.
Pollsters like Campaigns & Image, Stratpolls and the Center for Issues and Advocacy all projected a possible surge in Gibo’s campaign given Lakas-Kampi-CMD’s machinery, which, according to Toledo, “will show its might this local campaign season.”
Toledo said such fearless forecasts by these independent pollsters buttress what Lakas-Kampi-CMD leaders have been saying all along: that Gibo’s two secret weapons will propel him to victory come May 10
Go LAKAS-KAMPI! Do not be distracted by little imperfections caused by little political problems. It would not hurt your campaign to greatness! I support you all the way!
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