MANILA, Philippines – Of the 8 battleground provinces that the Liberal Party (LP) targeted to take over, the ruling party succeed in only two.

The LP aimed to unseat the incumbent governors of different parties in the provinces of Pangasinan, Pampanga, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, Cebu, Negros Oriental, and Zamboanga del Norte.

Read: Tight, costly races in 49 provinces

In these places, President Aquino visited these areas more than once — even up to three times for Cavite — in an attempt to turn the tide and convince voters to elect his candidates.

But in the end, LP is set to take only Cebu and Zamboanga del Norte.

What went wrong?

A campaign insider admitted to Rappler that the decision to push hard to get these provinces probably wasn’t a great idea to begin with.

“Getting into battleground where conventional political wisdom would tell you not to get into was sometimes a byproduct of people seeing the depth of the President’s political capital and using it to enact those changes in these provinces,” he said.

“Eyebrows were raised within the party as to why we were going into areas to use the President’s political stock,” he added, admitting some of these places were not thought over well enough.

Indeed, the President’s endorsement and the party’s resources were unsuccessful in driving their bets to victory, especially because most of their opponents had strongholds of their provinces with dynamic networks.

Some bets, such as Rep Ayong Maliksi of Cavite, were asked by Aquino himself to run, even if they didn’t initially want to. 

Even in places where LP was winning, the bets’ victories were driven by something aside from LP support. Davide’s win in Cebu was largely due to the backing of the influential Durano clan, which jumped ship and supported Davide after endorsing the Garcias for years, while Uy is part of a powerful political dynasty in Zamboange del Norte.

Latest unofficial results show that LP’s Hilario Davide III is well on his way to defeating Pablo John Garcia of the well-entrenched Garcia clan in Cebu, and Roberto Uy is far ahead of Cesar Jalosjos in Zamboanga del Norte.

LP’s other bets however face impending loss.

Irvin Alcala is trailing David Suarez of the National Unity Party’s (NUP) in Quezon. Suarez is the son of congressman Danilo Suarez.

In Pangasinan, Hernani Braganza is being galloped by the Nationalist People Coalition’s incumbent governor Amado Espino Jr.

In Laguna, Edgar San Luis is behind incumbent governor Jeorge Estregan Ejercito of the United Nationalist Alliance.

Two other LP bets have also conceded to their opponent. Maliksi conceded to Lakas bet Jonvic Remulla in vote-rich Cavite, while Among Ed Panlilio has also accepted loss to Kambilan’s Nanay Baby Pineda in Pampanga. – Rappler.com