Arroyo not yet on campaign trail

LUBAO, Pampanga – Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has yet to begin her campaign for a second term as representative of Pampanga’s second district.

Her chief rival, Vivian Dabu, kicked off a motorcade led by farmers and Aetas here on Sunday, March 31 in the first week of the 45-day campaign period for local positions. 

Dabu, 45, is the bet of the Liberal Party in the district consisting of Guagua, Sasmuan, Lubao, Sta. Rita, Porac and Floridablanca.

She is running on a platform that prioritizes agriculture, education and employment and defense of ancestral domain.

The children of Arroyo and her supporters did not launch any activity on Sunday.

Sick with a bone ailment and awaiting trial for alleged electoral fraud, Arroyo has been detained at the Veteran’s Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City since 2011.

She was the first president to seek and win a local post. She was last seen in Lubao in August last year, distributing relief packs to flood victims.

Arroyo is running under the banner of Lakas that had lost a following in Pampanga after she stepped down from the presidency in 2010.

Rappler sources said her victory at the poll would be decided if the Pinedas would still campaign for her openly or otherwise.

Sources from among her local political circle said she has not obtained a permit to go out and campaign.

Dabu ranked 14th in the 1987 accountancy test, finished 13th in the 1992 bar exam and served as provincial administrator in the time of priest-turned-governor Eddie Panlilio.

Arroyo is facing Dabu, lawyer Charlie Chua and Sasmuan Mayor Josefina Leoncio in a 4-corner fight, but Dabu is seen as her toughest contender.

“The voters should try a new, alternative candidate, and that is me because I shall usher beneficial services to the people,” Dabu said in an interview an hour before the motorcade began.

“I have done consultations in 140 barangays in the district and people say they have not benefited from any services from GMA (Arroyo’s initials),” she said.

Because livelihood in the second district remains basically agriculture, she said her programs have clear actions on how to solve problems pertaining to pupul (produce), presyu (prices) and paranum (irrigation).

Aetas of Porac and Floridablanca are prioritized because of widespread landgrabbing. In Porac alone, she said there are 98 claimants over ancestral domains. “There should be clear-cut policies on ownership and control of ancestral domain and right to self-determination, and against discrimination,” Dabu said.

She also sees a need for a “more definitive policy on education” that should begin from enrolment to employment to learning alternative skills.

Livelihood and micro-financing programs should be extended to women, workers and cooperatives.

She vowed a leadership that is “transparent” and “honest.” – Rappler.com