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Arroyo-Simpao battle brings Pampanga local polls into national focus


Adonis Simpao’s appearance bespeaks fortitude. Taking a break from going around houses in the town of Floridablanca in Pampanga province, sweat dripping from his face under the ruthless summer heat, he spoke with confidence, as if it were that easy to turn his words of hope into reality. For others he may seem all about appearances. But Simpao is all fired up, running against no less than the country’s President for the House seat in Pampanga’s second district.

Adonis Simpao, shown here outside his house, is pushing through with his bid to become congressman of Pampanga's second district even if he's facing off with the President. Jam Sisante
And fired up he should be, for his name is already etched in the province’s history for mustering the courage to run seriously against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the second longest-serving president next only to Ferdinand Marcos who ruled for 20 years. “Seriously" is the operative word, as two other independent bets are also running for the post. Walking through the area’s poster-plastered streets, however, one finds neither these two others’ campaign materials nor people who have actually seen them campaign. Filipinas Rosario Sampang is a 48-year-old master’s degree holder in public administration and management. Her website, www.sagipfilipinas.com, shows that she is an adopted candidate of presidential bet Bro. Eddie Villanueva’s Bangon Pilipinas Movement. Meanwhile, 55-year-old Feliciano Serrano, an electronics and communications engineer, previously ran but lost in the mayoral polls in Porac town in 2004. Observers believe the real David-vs.-Goliath battle will be between Lakas-Kampi-CMD’s Arroyo and Liberal Party’s Simpao. Some cynics would however assume that the election results will already be foregone in the second district, where Mrs. Arroyo has reportedly spent over P450 million last year for infrastructure projects alone. This amount, Simpao can only dream of raising to finance his own campaign, even as he admits his candidacy subsists on donated materials such as T-shirts, fliers and water bottles bearing his face. Crusade for change At around 1:00 pm on a scorching hot Thursday, Simpao, in a white shirt with his name carefully scribbled on it, sits idly in the LP’s provincial headquarters in San Fernando city, waiting for supporters from the multisectoral Kaya Natin! Movement who were supposed to bring with them materials to donate to his campaign. The whole morning of that day, 41-year-old Simpao, along with one of his only two assistants, went around Floridablanca, traversing even the narrowest, somnolent streets to introduce himself to residents reclining in rattan benches outside their homes. “Mayap ayabak pu. Adonis Simpao pu (Good morning. I am Adonis Simpao)," he would greet the residents, hands extended the formal Filipino way to show sincerity. The residents would then heave a collective sigh of relief, or perhaps discomfort, at finally meeting the person one would either adore for his sheer courage of running against the symbolic giant that is Arroyo, or ridicule for waging such a futile battle. “Surely, they can’t walk and do house-to-house campaigns as extensively as we do," Simpao declares in straight sophisticated Filipino, referring to what he perceives as a weak point of the Arroyo camp. True enough, what he lacks in machinery, he makes up in effort. Simpao’s posters could be found only in very few houses, whose owners Simpao says are his friends who faithfully look after his campaign materials so they don’t get dismantled supposedly by Arroyo supporters. Nevertheless, he spends most of the 45-day campaign period roaming the province’s second district, which includes the towns of Floridablanca, Guagua, Porac, Santa Rita, Sasmuan and the president’s hometown of Lubao. “Here in district 2, our tagline is ‘True Kapampangan, True Representative’. We need a representative who grew up here and knows the conditions of the Kapampangans, unlike our opponent who claims she is a Kapampangan but grew up somewhere else," he explains. Simpao seeks to continue the “crusade for change" that his party-mate Pampanga governor Eduardo “Among Ed" Panlilio started. Panlilio, a Catholic priest who went into politics to pursue a moral crusade against corruption, was unseated as governor by a recent Comelec ruling but is now seeking reelection. Throughout the interview, Simpao kept on referring to the former priest, eyes wistful at his apparent hope of replicating his champion’s feat in 2007, when the then equally obscure Panlilio won against the well-oiled political machinery of former provincial board member Lilia Pineda. Simpao, an architect by profession who was once a student council president and a member of the militant youth group League of Filipino Students, remains hopeful even as his camp has yet to visit at least half of the 159 barangays (administrative villages) in the district with the few remaining days of the campaign period. “We are expecting that the Kapampangans who want genuine change will deliver, the Kapampangans who have been enlightened to what the province really needs when they voted for Among Ed in 2007," he adds, as he wipes the sweat off his forehead with a white towel casually draped on his shoulders. He then returns to his borrowed car, his assistant trailing him, as he resumes his drive through Floridablanca’s residential streets to tirelessly greet more locals—“press more flesh" in campaign parlance—as if all hope lies in his touching his prospective constituency’s work-calloused but warm hands. Legacy of continued service Meanwhile, just days later, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seemed to have finally remembered she was still a candidate for the district’s congressional post, so she joined her townmate and staunch ally Pineda in wooing voters in San Fernando city. In what is believed to be her first-ever sortie since the campaign period started on March 26, according to news reports, Arroyo indulged the request of the rally’s host and sang before the cheering audience estimated to number at 3,000. “Tatanda at lilipas din ako / Ngunit mayro’ng awiting / Iiwanan sa inyong alaala / Dahil minsan, tayo’y nagkasama," the refrain of the song “Handog" read, bringing to fore the curious fact, and perhaps the first-ever case, that a President is all too willing to take on a much lower Congressional post in what she claims as a desire for continuing genuine service. The popular 1980s song talks about gracefully accepting the gift of old age, but not before leaving behind a song that is at once a legacy and a memory of relations held dear. One reels at the sheer irony of it, with Arroyo receiving much flak for supposedly doing everything to perpetuate herself in power. Power she is most certainly familiar with, having served previously as Trade undersecretary, Social Welfare and Development secretary, senator, vice president, and eventually president. She assumed the government’s top post following the ouster of President Joseph Estrada in 2000, and then for another full term of six more years, after she was reelected in 2004 amid widespread allegations of fraud. In 2009, Forbes magazine named her the 44th most powerful woman in the world. Before singing in the San Fernando rally, the President went around Porac, Floridablanca and Lubao in her bid to gather votes. Even as her allies confidently expressed she need not campaign as this early, her victory is already ensured. If she succeeds, Arroyo is set to replace her eldest son Juan Miguel “Mikey" Arroyo, who is likewise seeking a Congressional seat through a party-list group. Apart from her son, the President may also be joining in Congress her youngest son Diosdado Ignacio “Dato" Arroyo as Camarines Sur’s 2nd district House representative, and Ignacio “Iggy" Arroyo Jr. as Negros Occidental’s 5th district representative. At least 10 other Arroyo appointees are likewise seeking Congressional posts, bolstering rumors that the President is establishing an Arroyo bloc that will help propel her bid for House Speakership, and possibly Prime Minister in the event of a quick shift to the parliamentary system by declaring Congress as a constituent assembly to amend the constitution. The President thus seems confident, holding her first, and perhaps last, campaign sortie in her district just two weeks before the campaign period ends. Her posters, while certainly more in number as compared to her rival Simpao’s, are not as ubiquitous as her friend Pineda’s. In strategic spots hang her posters, either the one showing her in a white shirt amidst a green background or another, much bigger streamer showing her with her party’s other candidates in the province. “For the President. Persist and fortify," user Deuz Luzande comments in Arroyo’s Facebook fan page, now with 86 fans as opposed to Simpao’s 374. Indeed, the President may have heeded the advice several notches more seriously. From the shores to the center The province’s name, Pampanga, comes from the word pampang which means shore, after Spanish colonizers found the early natives of this Central Luzon province living near the riverbanks, estuaries, and the complex river delta. On May 10, all eyes will certainly be on Pampanga, glancing perhaps at the province’s unsettling political climate, or probably straining to see the details of how this otherwise low-profile region will come full circle to be the country’s center of attention. Simpao’s camp seems enthusiastic, citing the warm reception they receive from the communities they visit even as they admit they have reached a mere fraction of the second district’s over 270,000 voters. Arroyo, meanwhile, remains smug in her campaign, banking on the support of the province’s 20 mayors who earlier urged her to run for Congress. If this year’s election results turns out to be credible, Pampanga’s second district residents will finally have a chance to see whether they decided to exercise their collective wisdom and help sail the ship of state to safer shores, or by default, to allow collective folly and forgetfulness to bring this same ship to stormier waters ahead.—JV, GMANews.TV
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