CEBU, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino III led the Team PNoy in two grand proclamation rallies in Iloilo yesterday.
The Dumangas town grand rally was catered for administration party’s local candidates in the province’s fourth and fifth congressional districts while the Pavia sortie had local candidates in the first, second, and third districts getting Aquino’s endorsements.
Nine of 12 Team PNoy senatorial bets—Grace Poe-Llamanzares, Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero, Sonny Angara, Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, Bam Aquino, Koko Pimentel, Jamby Madrigal, Antonio Trillanes—were present in the grand rally.
Unlike the previous political Team PNoy political rallies in different provinces, the president spared his political nemesis during his speech.
Instead, he enumerated the different infrastructure projects lined up for the city and province of Iloilo.
Earlier that day, the president led the ceremonial groundbreaking of the P11-billion Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project Stage II in Calinog, Iloilo, which will generate hydroelectricity, irrigation and potable water—a flagship project of the Aquino administration.
Partly funded by the Eximbank of Korea, it is the biggest government project in Western Visayas that is aimed to prop up the agriculture sector here and pave the way for other allied industries in the region.
Aside from irrigating an additional 35,000 hectares of farmlands in Iloilo, JRMP will also supply an additional 35,000 cubic meters of bulk water supply per day and augment some 6-8 megawatts of power.
After the Iloilo rally, PNoy will court the electorate of Negros Occidental.
In Western Visayas, Negros Occidental and Bacolod City have the highest number of voters at 1,574,784.
Negros Occidental has 1,315,482 registered voters while Bacolod City has 259,302, while Iloilo Province and Iloilo City have a total of 1,270,100 voters. (FREEMAN)