HOW true are the reports that in the Third District of Davao City the supposed to be all HnP-HsTL line up for the Sangguniang Panlungsod is now undergoing the so-called “laglagan” process? And to make sure that this will be carried out to the letter the top leadership of one of two sectors of the local sibling parties was reported to have scheduled a meeting yesterday with barangay officials led by village chieftains identified with the group.
The meeting according to our source, was to brief the attendee barangay executives on the methodologies in carrying out the plan. Of course the likelihood is that during the same meeting resources needed to execute the details of the scheme are expected to be distributed as well. The resources may include money, vehicles, and manpower that will be at the forefront to ensure that everything is complied with as expected.
Who in the third district council aspirants are target of the “laglagan”? We were told by our sources that three candidates, all donning the HnP-HsTL colors, are the ones to be dispensed with. They are reelectionist Nonoy Al-ag, second-time aspirant Bebot Clarion, and also reelection seeker Cocoy Zozobrado.
Our informant also told us that the ones strongly pushed for inclusion are aspirants Melba Principe and Enzo Villafuerte.
According to our source, the exclusion of the three from among those strongly endorsed to be supported by the third district electorate has something to do with the desire of the family of one candidate to have their aspirant end up topping in the list of winners.
Simply put, the objective is the attendant prestige of being number one among winners and of course the possibility of getting appointed to the second highest position in the city should there be sudden vacancy created.
Who will not look forward to that rare opportunity without going into the election process?
Meanwhile from our own observation we can deduce that Clarion, Al-ag and Zozobrado are unfazed by their exclusion. Instead, it appears that at the start of this week and even earlier they seemed to have gotten wind of the move to exclude them.
Somehow, they are acting like they are being challenged to do their maximum best in campaigning. Their leaders are suddenly everywhere in the district and look like they represent candidates who are not likely to give up the fight despite the sudden change in the condition in their political battlefield.
Our hunch here is that their chances of winning will be doomed if those who are desiring for their ouster in the list will resort to the use of the most effective tool to attain an objective, especially in politics — money, and in the worst case, intimidation.
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At the national front, it looks like the heat of the battle for the Presidency and Vice Presidency has now shifted to the surveys by different research institutions. The more prominent and established ones like the SWS, Pulse Asia, the Laylo group and the UP-based OCTA Research have the results of their surveys since the start of the election season strongly favoring Bongbong Marcos-Sara Duterte tandem to win if the elections were held at the time the surveys were conducted. Even the non-professionally-run Kalye Surveys and the phoned-in questions by some broadcast networks have the same team coming out the run-away winner.
Meanwhile, the Leni-Kiko team seemed to have done its own presentation of surveys where the tandem is ahead of the BBM-Sara by a mile. Often the results were the complete reverse to the numbers in the SWS, Pulse Asia, the Laylo and the OCTA Research sutveys. Robredo and Pangilinan are the ones ahead by the miles. The other candidates seemed to have retained their ratings in the results of the mainstream survey institutions.
The only one apparently credible source of the supposed survey figures of the Leni-Kiko tandem is the se-called Google Trends. But we have to admit that we have no idea if there really is such a survey unit from Google. It is obvious however, that it only appears this election season. Thus, the entity is alien to us.
The opposition team has also been posting in social media the supposed results of mock elections in schools. We can only imagine how the team could have achieved the outputs when we know that face-to-face classes are still very limited until these days.
Of course there is a saying that goes: “Hope springs eternal.” Who knows what is in store for the tandem and those who badly desire for their win.
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