Friday, April 20, 2012

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia as Senator?

Former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia is included in the long list of 18 potential senate candidates under United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

However, they are still waiting for her commitment, which is expected in July during the governor's State of the Province Address (SOPA).

Garcia was endorsed by National Unity Party (NUP) as one of their candidates for senator.

The governor's father, Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia (Cebu, 2nd district), is the NUP president.

Zubiri was in Cebu Wednesday to serve as guest speaker of the maritime students of Southwestern University (SWU), where a number of his last batch of scholars graduated.

He also had a luncheon meeting with southern Cebu town mayors in a restaurant in Banilad, Cebu City.

UNA is a coalition between Vice President Jemor Binay's Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) party and former president Joseph Estrada's Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) party.

Reports said it is part of Binay's preparation for a planned presidential run in 2016.

Zubiri said he also hoped to be one of the 12 candidates to be endorsed by UNA, saying his opponent's protest, Sen. Aquilino Pimental III, was considered a stumbling block on his formal entry to Binay and Erap's alliance.

He appealed to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III to move on, saying they are supposed to help each other because they are from neighboring provinces in Mindanao.

Zubiri got the 12th slot in the 2007 senatorial election but Pimentel protested his proclamation and was eventually declared as winner.

"We were both victims. The witnesses said the instructions did not come from the candidates but from above," Zubiri said.

Zubiri resigned from the Senate in August last year, amid an investigation on allegations of fraud in the May 2007 senatorial elections.

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