The landslide victory that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte achieved in the May 9 elections proved the saying that “where Manila goes, the country follows.”
This assessment was expressed by Manila Congressman Amado Bagatsing, who cited the fact that Duterte garnered some 350,000 votes, or 44 percent of the total votes cast in Manila and came in first among top four presidential candidates.
Manila has about 975,000 registered voters of which approximately 765,000 of them cast their ballots, for a 78-percent turnout, according to the Commission on Elections.
The other three presidential bets tallied the following: Grace Poe, second placer with 181,170 votes, or 27.04 percent; Jojo Binay, 3rd 96,997 or 12.94 percent; and administration hopeful Mar Roxas, 4th, 88,047 or 11.75 percent.
Bagatsing was the campaign manager of Duterte in Manila. He was together with Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, the wife of Duterte’s vice presidential running mate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. They were the only two overall and general campaign strategists in Metro Manila which is composed of 16 cities and one municipality.
Likewise, Duterte won big time in the metropolis, Bagatsing added.
Of the almost seven million registered voters in Metro Manila, Duterte topped the presidential derby with almost three million votes cast by some of its estimated 80-percent election participants or turnouts, Bagatsing claimed.
As early as July last year, the Bagatsing group and the medical and civic organization he formed 30 years ago—the Kabalikat ng Bayan sa Kaunlaran or Kabaka which now has 200,000 membe rs and is presently headed by its president lawyer Eduardo E. Francisco—have started to focus on making Duterte win in Manila and the metropolis.
In coordination with trusted men from the Duterte political camp, notably Fred Lim (not the ex-mayor of Manila) and lawyer Arthur Tugade, the just-appointed secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications, the “Run Duterte Run” was launched at once by Bagatsing’s daughter, the newly-elected Congresswoman Cristal Bagatsing (5th District).
