Roces leads huge rally in P’sinan today

SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan — More than a year after the 2004 presidential elections, actress Susan Roces, widow of actor-turned-presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ), will be reunited today with her husband’s kabaleyan (provincemates) in what the opposition considers the biggest rally in Pangasinan to call on President Arroyo to resign.

Roces, accompanied by opposition leaders, will be in Pangasinan — the home-province of FPJ’s father — for two days.

FPJ trounced Mrs. Arroyo in Pangasinan, which she considers her second home-province since her late mother hailed from Binalonan town, in the 2004 elections although the opposition believes he was still cheated here.

At 10 a.m. today , Roces will have a dialogue with the students of Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation and the members of FPJ’s clan in this city.

Then, she and her entourage will troop to Dagupan City for lunch and a dialogue with local officials sympathetic to the opposition’s cause.

At 3 p.m., Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz will officiate a Mass at the St. John’s Cathedral in Dagupan City.

Cruz, who has been consistently waging an anti-jueteng crusade which has dragged some members of the First Family as alleged recipients of jueteng payola, earlier told The STAR that he will just talk about "angels" in his homily.

After the Mass, Roces will lead a multisectoral peace rally at the Don Alipio Fernandez Astrodome, popularly known as the Dagupan Astrodome, which is expected to be attended by people from the eastern towns and some western municipalities considered as the opposition’s bailiwicks.

Rally organizers have a permit, the police said.

Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin Lim, incidentally, was the only Pangasinan mayor who has called on Mrs. Arroyo to step down for the sake of the people. He is expected to join today’s rally.

Lim, according to a source, might announce in the rally that he is bolting the Lakas-CMD (Christian, Muslim Democrats), the administration party.

But Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. told reporters last week that he would try to talk to Lim to work things out. — With Cesar Ramirez