BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines – With judgment day fast approaching, it is still anybody’s ball game as far as the gubernatorial races in Isabela, Cagayan and Quirino are concerned.
Most closely watched in Cagayan Valley’s election race is between Gov. Grace Padaca and three-term Rep. Faustino Dy III, who are running neck and neck for the governorship of Isabela.
Local political pundits predict a very close race between Padaca, who is seeking her third and final term as governor, and Dy, who is out to reclaim the post which their family had held for more than three decades until they lost it to the former in the 2004 elections.
Both Padaca, a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for government service, and Dy, a perennial outstanding local chief executive during his nine-year stint as Cauayan City mayor, both expressed confidence of winning the governorship of the country’s third largest province.
Padaca said that her winning a third and final term as governor of the country’s third largest province could mean the final blow to the Dys’ remaining political domination of the province.
Desperate to return to power
“I believe in our chances. Our victory this time around will be the coup de grace for the Dys who have been dominating the province’s politics,” said Padaca, a former broadcast journalist.
Padaca, a polio victim, said that the Dy family is only desperate to return to power, which, she claimed, had been marred with corruption, patronage politics and illegal logging activities.
For Dy, however, this coming electoral exercise is an opportunity for Isabela to regain its lost footing as far as its economy and social services are concerned from an “inept provincial leadership.”
“We have been deprived of basic services during her term. There has been no tangible economic development in the province for the last six years. I believe Padaca grossly wronged the people,” said Dy, stressing that his running for the governorship “is not about our family’s regaining the governorship.”