“It is Evardone who was the first among the regional leaders to realize the significance of the shift in people’s support.”
There’s something brewing in the heart of Eastern Visayas. It is the bewildering surge of the “pink tide” that is quite different from the typhoon surges that people in the region are familiar with.
A clear indication of this surge is the recent turnaround of Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone—a staunch ally and high-ranking party-mate of President Rodrigo Duterte—to abandon the UniTeam ticket in favor of the opposition tandem of Vice President Leni Robredo and Sen. Francis ‘Kiko’ Pangilinan.
Evardone, a journalist/PR man-turned-politician, has nothing to gain actually from this shift in allegiance, compared to what he is risking in terms of “pogi points” and priority funding, by leaving the well-oiled Marcos-Duterte machinery.
Embracing the Leni-Kiko team is like adopting penniless orphans from the streets. His decision to break from the UniTeam is akin to leaving a sprawling estate where he is the designated caretaker.
Like an old-school journalist, the Eastern Samar governor might have stumbled upon some hard facts that he finds difficult to ignore.
One of these facts is the revelation that despite being referred to as the “Solid North” of the Visayas, “Waraylandia” is, after all, Leni country.
An internal survey recently conducted in the region showed that Leni is winning against Marcos Jr., 44.35 percent to 32.55 percent.
The regional survey, which polled 1,780 respondents, is a big contrast to the strong 60 percent of Marcos Jr. as against the far second 15 percent of Leni in nationwide surveys.
In the same privately-commissioned survey, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno got 8.45 percent while senators Manny Pacquiao and Panfilo “Ping” Lacson scored 8.17 percent and 3.91 percent, respectively.
All is not lost for the UniTeam tandem, however, because Davao Mayor Sara Duterte was able to pull off a 39.91 percent rating from Kiko’s 25.84 percent in the vice-presidential survey. This could also be the reason why Evardone is not going all the way for the Leni-Kiko ticket.
The subtext of this, however, is that Waray people are rejecting their once-favored adopted son—Marcos Jr.—while remaining loyal to the first daughter of Davao.
That Leni is leading the regional survey in Eastern Samar also shatters the long-held political myth of “Waraylandia” being “Marcos” country.
During the Martial Law regime, Eastern Visayas held political importance for Marcos Sr. because it is the home province of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.
Imelda, using her growing clout with the extended hold onto power by Marcos Sr., wasted no time in re-branding the Romualdez clan into a political and economic powerhouse in the whole of Eastern Visayas.
The family indeed prospered like the Rockefellers or the Vanderbilts, but the region never graduated from being one of the poorest in the country.
The fact that Tacloban City has never left the political stewardship of the Romualdez family since the toppling of Marcos Sr. in 1986 is a faint reminder of this once-mighty clout.
But if the regional survey showing Leni’s advantage would be the gauge, that faint memory of a “Marcosian” bailiwick is in danger of being totally swept away by the “pink tide.”
It is Evardone who was the first among the regional leaders to realize the significance of the shift in people’s support. Thus, his sudden turn-around.
The grapevine is also rife with rumors that some regional leaders and their political warlords are mulling the calculated risk of embracing the “pink tide” of Leni-Kiko.
Another regional leader who made the first jump to the Leni bandwagon is Rep. Joey Salceda of vote-rich Bicol. So did former senator Serge Osmeña of Cebu who initially backed Manila Mayor Isko Moreno.
Governor Daniel Fernando of Bulacan province was the latest provincial leader to be swept by the raging “pink tide.”
The Moro leaders of Mindanao led by Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman and the island’s provincial governor have also latched on to the “pink wave.”
What’s happening in Waraylandia could also be the same story in other provinces once perceived as loyal to the Marcos family. But we need corroborating or secondary source before we can generalize this as the turning of the tide or groundswell of support.
With their billions intact—including the unpaid P203-billion estate tax—the Marcos machinery may just pull off a big recovery in their once-dearest Eastern Visayas.
And as the strength of the Leni-Kiko campaign grows from rally to rally, including the biggest one in Pasig, regional leaders may soon realize that the tide is finally turning—from red to a massive, undulating sea of pink.
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