THE camp of presidential candidate Sen. Manny Pacquiao is eyeing to grab a significant percentage of Ilocano votes in Isabela province following a two-day campaign swing in northern Luzon.
After securing the endorsement of some local political leaders led by PROMDI mayoralty bet for Cauayan City Virgilio “Bill” Dy, the retired eight division boxing icon hit the trail, visiting public markets, followed by a motorcade to meet a packed crowd at the Isabela State University-Cauayan Campus open field.
Pacquiao wooed Isabela voters by promising support for rice farmers, eradicating corruption, job crea-tion, and judicious spending of public funds.
Isabela is the country’s second largest rice producing province. It is part of the so-called Solid North, which is considered the bailiwick of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
“I am asking you to give Manny Pacquiao a chance to serve this country, so you can see the difference between what I can deliver against what we had to deal with in the last 30 years,” Pacquiao told the crowd.
Countering the earlier statement of Marcos that corruption cannot be stopped but only controlled, Pacquiao said he will clean up government early in his administration by personally leading the arrest and incarceration of erring ranking public officials.
“We need to solve that problem straight off. It is like a cancer that holds us back from progress and advancement. It is the root cause of our country’s troubles so eradicating it must be a priority,” he said.
He appealed to voters not to be hoodwinked by sugar-coated promises, particularly advertisements on various social media platforms extolling the virtues of a candidate.
“Don’t be deceived by all the fake news and propaganda on social media. I remind our young people that during a campaign, you are bound to hear only brilliant programs and lofty goals, these are all part of the show,” he stressed.
What sets him apart from the other candidates, Pacquiao said, is that many of his programs are a con-tinuation of all the things that he had been doing to help uplift the lives of more Filipinos.
“Unlike my opponents who are good only at making promises, I have already shown how I can help even before I joined politics,” he pointed out, citing the five Pacman Villages where free housing was provided for the poor, and financing thousands of livelihood and scholarship programs using his per-sonal money.
“We are a democratic nation so I know not everyone will vote for BBM. I trust that there are many who aspire for genuine reforms rather than traditional politics,” he said.
Dy backed Pacquiao’s pronouncements, dismissing claims that Marcos can get solid support in Isabela.
“Solid North is a myth. Even here, there are 130,000 who voted for the opposition. My own brother who is the vice-governor here got 435,000 voters. But there are 130,000 who would vote against the administration…I believe most of them will back Pacquiao,” Dy said.
