'Presidentiables' give out caps, fans to Dinagyang spectators
Amid the drum-beatings and revelry in this city's Dinagyang festival, two officials being touted as among the front runners for the 2010 presidential election battled for the Ilonggos support with gimmicks that have signaled the intensifying jockeying for the country's highest post.
Hundreds of distinctively bright yellow caps were distributed to Dinagyang spectators watching the Ati-Ati tribe contest yesterday turning crowds into images of yellow.
The caps were handed out by the Liberal Party which Sen. Manuel "Mar" Roxas II heads. The senator who hails from Capiz province has already been endorsed by top LP officials as the party's presidential candidate in 2010.
Emblazoned in bold letters in the front of the cap is the slogan "Oras Na" (It's Time) and the LP logo at the back.
The slogan, an apparent play with words that sounds similar to "Roxas Na" , is the title and repeated theme of Roxas' speech during the LP national executive committee where he was elected as party president on November 26, 2007.
Not be outdone, supporters of Senate President Manuel Villar, president of the Nacionalista Party and also being touted as a presidential candidate, handed out hand fans to spectators.
Villar's picture was prominently displayed in one side of the fan along with the NP logo. The fan was colored light orange, Villar's campaign color in the last elections.
The caps and fans competed with handouts, flyers and other advertisement materials of business companies.
Roxas attended the Mass preceding the tribe contest at the San Jose Church and joined spectators at the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand, the main judging area, along with Sen. Richard Gordon.
Villar, who has Ilonggo roots, was scheduled to attend the Mass but canceled his early morning trip to Iloilo because of a pressing concern in Manila.
Villar and Roxas have consistently topped the senatorial elections in the city and province of Iloilo.
Roxas downplayed the distribution of the caps when asked by reporters if this is an indication that he is already campaigning for the 2010 elections.
It's just a saying. (It means) let's work together… it's time… oras na," he told reporters in an ambush interview at the Iloilo provincial capitol after he met with Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas Sr, also an LP official.
He elaborated that this means to "unite and help each other towards success, like the Dinagyang."
Asked of the impact of factionalization in the LP, Roxas insisted that "there is no fragment."
The LP has splintered between the camp headed by former Senate President Franklin Drilon and the other led by Environment Secretary Lito Atienza over disagreements on the party's stance on President Macapagal-Arroyo at the height of the "Hello Garci" scandal in 2005.
The Supreme Court upheld the legitimacy of Drilon's presidency of the party but remanded the issue of which faction should be recognized to the Commission on Elections.
There is only one LP… The Supreme Court has already spoken," Roxas said.
He added, they do not pay attention to "those who are sowing disunity, sowing intrigue and undermining (the party)."