GMA barnstorms Isabela today

ILAGAN, Isabela — President Arroyo is scheduled to crisscross this country’s second largest province today, seeking the votes of its more than one million registered voters in her bid for a full six-year term.

Gov. Faustino Dy Jr., national president of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), said Mrs. Arroyo and her entourage are expected to arrive at 1:30 p.m. on board the presidential chopper at the Cauayan City domestic airport.

Meanwhile, third district Rep. Faustino Dy III, the governor’s younger brother, belied rumors that their family is supporting different presidential candidates, saying they are 100-percent behind Mrs. Arroyo.

"Our family is solidly behind her. How can we turn our backs against a person very dear to us? She is not only a close family friend but she cares so much for his province," he said.

The Dys’ patriarch, the late, long-time governor Faustino Dy Sr., was one of the political lieutenants of Mrs. Arroyo’s father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, in his failed re-election against then Senate President Ferdinand Marcos in 1969.

From the airport, Mrs. Arroyo’s entourage, accompanied by Gov. Dy and other provincial officials, will go on a motorcade to the newly completed Cauayan City District Hospital in Barangay District I for its inauguration.

From Cauayan City, the President will proceed to San Manuel town in the province’s vast Mallig plains where Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats) and NPC members in the region, led by former police general Thompson Lantion, the administration’s congressional bet for the lone district of Nueva Vizcaya, are expected to welcome her in a grand rally.

The President is also expected to be the special guest of today’s birthday celebration of Gov. Dy, the acknowledged leader of the politically influential Dy clan who includes Rep. Dy III, Cauayan City Mayor Caesar Dy, Angadanan Mayor Napoleon Dy and former three-term Isabela governor Benjamin Dy.

At least eight members of the clan are running for various positions in the May 10 elections.

Isabela, the country’s major rice-producing province, accounts for about 60 percent of the region’s total registered voters.

This is Mrs. Arroyo’s seventh visit to the province since she assumed the presidency.