Loving your own Cebuano candidate and why

This article is about why Cebuanos need to realize the importance of loving their own Cebuano candidates for national office and why. Right now, politicians are on the move to establish familiarization and name recall in order to make it to the top 12 of the 2013 list of “Senatoriables”.

You can’t get away from them, they are all over the place, and in 2013, if you stand long enough someone might cover you with their posters and pictures! I am of course talking about politicians and celebrities who have plans to run in the 2013 elections. With each passing week there has been a noticeable increase in the publicity being generated by politicians and their PR specialists and comrades in media.

They started with small print ads endorsing nutritional products, real estate projects and then moved to the more serious stuff such commentaries on taxes and government projects. Recently I have heard more and more radio commercials featuring senators running for re-election or celebrities intending to run for senate. The high point of the week in terms of publicity I suppose has to be a featured article about Vilma Santos-Recto’s Hawaiian vacation.

At this point in time, the candidate or politician who can get into as many radio and TV commercials before the official campaign starts will certainly have a big head start or an advantage. This is where politicians from Metro Manila have the upper hand. Their proximity to business owners, Radio –TV stations as well as business associations make it a lot easier to get themselves into the “picture”. The business owners in return are only too glad to support and even pay talent fee to the politician-talents because this comes with an unwritten understanding that once the politician get’s into office, the businessmen or companies can expect to have a supporter in office. It is no longer about corruption but protection from harassment.

Knowing how volatile and “in your face” Cebu politics can be, I can’t help wonder if Cebuanos especially businessmen and the different associations have stopped to wonder or consider the wisdom in backing and loving their own “Cebuano candidates” for national office. Yes there are Cebuanos currently holding national positions, but are they truly and deeply Cebuano or conveniently Cebuano when needed?

Perhaps it is time for Cebuanos to revisit their past when many Cebuanos occupied key positions in government, which directly or indirectly contributed to the continued progress and development of the province and the region.

Far up north, the Ilocanos have learned the importance of having their own people in National government. Love them or hate them, The Marcoses hold various positions both in local and national office and this set-up has led to a very coordinated planning, funding and prioritization of projects. Whatever their local differences may be in politics, the Ilocanos have been united as the “Northern Alliance” in Congress and now have an Ilocano in the Senate in the person of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos.

Because of their united and expressed political will, it is now difficult to ignore the voters and politicians of Ilocos. This in turn has benefitted the province in terms of infrastructure development, power generation, tourism, even special legislations concerning their tobacco industry.

For the province of Cebu the most prominent Cebuano planning to run for Senator in 2013 is Governor Gwen Garcia. Compared to the Manila based professional politicians, Garcia’s public exposure is no where half of Mila Magsaysay’s who’s PR team always gets her interviewed on radio and TV. In terms of commercials, the current queen of politician-product endorsers is Vilma Santos Recto.

As an outsider, I would dare say that Gwen Garcia has given more of her time to Cebu than Vilma Santos has to the province of Batangas. In fact Vi is not a true Batangueño unlike Gwen Garcia who literally and not just “officially” resides in the province. So chances are, Garcia would be giving back to Cebu more than Ate Vi can be expected to give back to Batangas would if elected as Senator. Unfortunately, Gwen Garcia can only go as far as Cebuano business people may be willing to carry her, which they really should because in the end having their own representative in the Senate will always be better than half a Cebuano or no representation at all.

In the end, in politics and development we need to love our own first, before others.