The 28 Negros Occidental mayors reiterated and pledged anew their support to the presidential bid of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., UniTeam provincial spokesperson and former Murcia mayor Esteban “Sonny” Coscolluela yesterday said.
Benhur Abalos, Marcos’ campaign manager, and Mayor Luis “Chavit” Singson of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, met with the 28 mayors and four Negros Occidental solons at the Stonehill Suites in Bacolod City Sunday, Coscolluela said.
Singson is also the president of the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines.
Coscolluela said that Abalos and Singson told the 28 mayors to hold on and deliver the votes for the BBM-Sara Duterte tandem in the May 9 elections.
“You can’t sit back and say, we are leading. You have to deliver the votes. Election is a game of counting votes,” he said even as he acknowledged that Marcos is overwhelmingly leading in the surveys compared to the nine other presidential candidates.
Negros Occidental ranked sixth among the vote-rich provinces in the country, with 1.9 million voters, including the highly-urbanized Bacolod City.
Coscolluela said that four incumbent Negros Occidental solons, including Reps. Gerardo Valmayor, Jose Francisco Benitez, Juliet Marie Ferrer, and Marilou Arroyo joined the 28 mayors in the meeting, while former Rep. Mercedes Alvarez, who is running unopposed in her comeback bid in the 6th District, sent a message “that in spirit, she is with them”.
He also reported that 23 mayors in Iloilo and 18 local chief executives in Negros Oriental are supporting BBM.
“The bandwagon is on. It’s a simple logic, if you are a public official, you go with the weather,” Coscolluela said.
He added that the snowballing number of BBM volunteer groups in the province is phenomenal.
Asked if BBM will win by a landslide in Negros Occidental, Coscolluela replied, “Too much for us. But I believe he will just eke out and come out as a winner”. | GB
