Loren supports Gwen for Senate

CEBU, Philippines - Senator Loren Legarda yesterday declared her support for Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia’s bid for the Senate next year.

Legarda joined Garcia together with Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia (2nd district, Cebu), Rep. Pablo John Garcia (3rd district, Cebu) and Mayor Ronald Guarin in the inauguration of the heritage park and municipal museum of Oslob in southern Cebu.

“I will be more than happy to mentor, to be campaign manager and to accompany and be with my kumadre Governor Gwen Garcia when she campaigns for the Senate next year,” Legarda said.

Hearing such statement, Garcia said she is very happy considering that Legarda is a frontrunner in the Senate and a consistent number one every time she runs.

Garcia admitted she needs a lot of mentoring since this is the first time she takes a huge challenge.

“I’m so happy that I can now count on Senator Loren Legarda,” Garcia told reporters.

Legarda said her family is scattered around Antique where her mother is from. Antique is the first sister-province of Cebu. She also has relatives from her father’s hometown, Laguna. Some of Legarda’s relatives are from Ilocos, Marikina, and Mindanao where she is an honorary Muslim princess.

Legarda said she believes in the projects of Gov. Garcia and that they share the same advocacies on environment, agriculture, small and medium enterprise, culture and heritage.

“I declare today in Oslob that I will bring Gwen so that the Filipino people will benefit from my vision, from my dynamism, from the brilliance that she has done to convert Cebu, to unite Cebu, to bring culture and heritage and nature and jobs to the Cebuanos to make you proud of your culture,” she said.

Like Garcia of the local One Cebu Party, Legarda of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) confirmed she was also invited by Vice President Jejomar Binay and former president Joseph Estrada to be a guest candidate of the United Nationalists Alliance (UNA).

“While she (Gwen) will accompany me when I campaign around Cebu and the Visayas, then I can help accompany her when I go around Luzon,” Legarda said.

In her speech, Legarda stressed that before she became principal sponsor of the wedding of Liloan Mayor Vincent Franco Frasco and lawyer Christina Garcia, daughter of Gwen, she already admired the governor.

She wants Gwen to be her partner in the Senate to pursue the issues on culture and heritage, environment, anti-trafficking, women’s rights, senior citizens’ rights and many more.

“I need allies who think the same way, kailangan may kakampi, kailangan may kasing-sipag, kailangang may kasing-dynamic, kailangan we share the vision. (...I need an ally who is equally hardworking and as dynamic),” Legarda said as she already saw these qualities in the governor.

Considering the experience of Garcia in local governance, Legarda also emphasized the need to bring it to national consciousness and translate it to national policies. (FREEMAN)