Re-electionist Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez (1st District, Davao del Norte) and his party mate gubernatorial bet Edwin Jubahib have gained points in results of the latest survey by Pulso Dabaw.
But the gains are no cause for celebration for the stalwarts of the Alvarez Wing of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino/Lakas ng Bayan (PDP/Laban), in the one-on-one battles with candidates of the Hugpong Ng Pagbabago (HNP).
The coming May 13 election pits Alvarez against Gov. Anthony del Rosario (HNP) in the First District Congress race, Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr (HNP) vs. Vice Governor Alan Dujali (Alvarez Wing) in the 2nd District, with Board Member Rodney del Rosario (HNP) fighting Jubahib (Alvarez Wing) in the gubernatorial race.
In the 2nd survey of the Davao Region-based pollster, conducted during the period January 15-28, the HNP leading candidates took the top spots, as in the first survey covering the period January 8-14, with the Alvarez Wing bets stuck at the bottom.
In the 2nd survey, involving 500 respondents, Alvarez gained a point (115 votes or 23%) against his score of 77 or 22% in the previous survey involving 350 respondents.
But Gov. del Rosario maintained his wide lead in the second survey, 365 or 73%. His score in the first survey with 350 respondents was 255 or 73 percent.
Jubahib was also a winner by one percentile, 126 or 18%, compared to his first survey performance (59 or 17 percent).
But Rodney del Rosario is also up by one percentile with 574 or 82% in the second survey of 700 respondents compared to his score of 284 or 81% of 350 respondents.
In the 2nd District Dujali’s score was dormant at 6% from 30 votes against the previous survey of 21 votes or 6 percent of 350 respondents.
Against Dujali, Floirendo was an unreachable star with 460 or 92 %, gaining the same percentile as in the previous survey (322 or 92% of 350 respondents).
The survey is not commissioned by any group or person, according to Jovita Salvador, Pulso Dabaw president and chief executive officer.
Rigor Zabala, Pulso Dabaw Field Operations chief, said for the 2nd survey, three five-member survey teams took responses in face-to-face interviews from 700 respondents throughout the province, 500 in the First District and 500 in the Second District. Respondents in the interviews were of voting age.
The respondents were asked the question: IF THE MAY 13 ELECTION IS HELD TODAY WHO WILL YOU VOTE FOR AS…(GOVERNOR/CONGRESSMAN)?
Salvador said the results of the two surveys which are more or less similar, is a potential indication of what could be the results of its coming surveys.
If the pattern persists in the next one or two surveys, we can safely say that the final outcome in this election would tilt favorably to the Hugpong ng Pagbabago, said Salvador.
The Pulso Dabaw head however said that other factors may intervene during the election campaign period that may affect the winning advantages now enjoyed by HNP.
Salvador pointed out these “winning advantages” as the dominance for decades of the Floirendo and Del Rosario team over the political landscape of Davao del Norte.
She adds that the support Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and the HNP, a regional political party of the presidential daughter, will play a crucial role in the victory of the Floirendo/Del Rosario team.
Salvador said that the Alvarez Wing is hobbled by a weak bench. Alvarez, still nursing the wounds of his ouster as Speaker of the House of Representatives in July last year, has picked virtual unknown Jubahib, his personal assistant, to run for governor, and Dujali against politically-entrenched Floirendo.
According to Salvador, Pulso Dabaw was expected to release anytime results of its 3rd survey, conducted from February 4 to 15 involving 2,000 respondents.
ALVAREZ, JUBAHIB NECK-TO-NECK IN DAVAO DEL NORTE PRE-POLL SURVEY
In Davao del Norte, reelectionist First District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez and his candidate for Governor are in a stiff fight in the race to the bottom of pre-poll surveys for the coming May election.
Alvarez, his political stock downed by his ouster in July as Speaker of the House of Representatives and battered by allegations of corruption, was a few points away from Zero in the survey conducted by Pulso Dabaw. Gubernatorial bet Edwin Jubahib, a virtual unknown and candidate of Alvarez’s “Alvarez Wing” competed with Alvarez in the neck-to-neck race to the bottom of the survey, the first by the Davao Region-based pollster in relation to the 2019 mid-term election. The survey was conducted during the period January 8-14, 2019 involving 1,200 repondents. Three Pulso Dabaw five-member teams separately generated results of the survey in face-to-face encounters with respondents of voting age in the province (500 respondents), First Congressional District (350 repondents) and Second Congressional District (350 respondents). The respondents were asked the question: IF THE 2019 MID-TERM ELECTION IS HELD TODAY WHO WILL YOU VOTE FOR AS…(GOVERNOR/CONGRESSMAN)? In the race for Governor, Rodney del Rosario was picked by 284 repondents or 81 percent against Jubahib’s 59 or 17%. 2% or seven of the respondents were undecided. In the First District race, Anthony del Rosario clobbered Alvarez with a high 255 respondents (73%) against the former Speaker who got the nod of a measly 77 or 22%. The undecided numbered 18 repondents (5%). Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. in the Second District survey, was picked by 322 respondents (92%) with Dujali netting an extremely low 21 (6%), with 7 (2%) in the Undecided bracket. Rodney del Rosario, a sitting member of the Provincial Board, and younger brother, incumbent Governor Anthony del Rosario are cousins of Floirendo.
The Del Rosarios and Floirendo are running under the banner of the Hugpong Ng Pagbabago (HNP), a regional party organized by presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. Alvarez, Jubahib and Dujali carry the banner of the Alvarez Wing, a local bloc aligned with the PDP/Laban, of which Alvarez is the secretary general. Jovita Salvador, Pulso Dabaw chief executive officer, said the survey is uncommissioned. Salvador said it would release soon results of survey conducted during the period January 15-28, which shall include a poll on voters’ preference in the cities of Igacos (Island Garden City of Samal), Tagum and Panabo. She explained that its first surveys zeroed in on Davao del Norte as it is the only province in the Davao Region where the coming election is “most politically pronounced.” Salvador said that while there is also a “hot contest’ in the race for Governor in Davao del Sur, candidates for top positions in other provinces (Davao de Oro, Davao Oriental and Davao Occidental) are either reelectionist incumbents backed by Mayor Duterte-Carpio’s HNP or are facing only token opposition.
Despite his looming defeat, EDWIN JUBAHIB, the ambitious former bus conductor who wants to be governor of Davao del Norte, has a future ahead of him. Ranged against Rodolfo “Rodney” del Rosario Jr. in the race for Governor in the coming May mid-term election, Jubahib, aka Kuya Edwin, aka Ugahip, could graduate from being a former bus conductor to become a train conductor.
In between if he wins, which is presposterously unbelievable, Jubahib could turn out to be a security guard at the Davao del Norte Capitol. One of Jubahib’s favorite campaign line is that if he wins he would open Capitol to the public up to midnight and that he would be holding office there 24/7. If he holds office 24/7 at Capitol, which is again preposterously unbelievable because he could never win, Jubahib would be acting as the Capitol security guard (SG’s work 24/7, di ba?) to demean the office of the governor.
You cannot fault people who say Jubahb is an ignoramus who has no inkling whatsoever on how to run a government office much less the Office of the Governor. His dream to become governor is not only a shot at the moon; It is a ticket to a mental institution. His promise to open Capitol to the public up to midnight and to hold office there 24/7 is funny if not insane. The public transact business with Capitol during the day not in the wee hours of the dawn! Besides, the Civil Service mandates only an 8am to 5pm official work time for government employees. Jubahib could be charged with expropriation of public property if he uses Capitol for his own whim and caprice, beyond mandated office hours for those in government service. Remember Senator Antonio “Trililing” Trillanes who holed himself up 24/7 in his office in the Senate to avoid a warrant of arrest over rebellion charges in 2007? Senate President Tito Toto had said that Trililing expropriated for himself government property and should pay light and water bills. If Jubahib wins, which is again preposterously unbelievable, and orders Capitol employees to work up to midnight and holds office 24/7 in his office, he could be charged for misuse of public property and ordered to pay light and water bills and overtime pay for the Capitol workers! Why do we say that Jubahib is a sure loser? Because his fate is entwined with that of First District Rep. Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez, whose own reelection is doomed. Jubahib is the candidate of Alvarez, whose reelection is being contested by Gov. AGR.
Rodney is backed by the formidable political powerhouse team of his brother Gov. Anthony “AGR” del Rosario, his father and nmesake veteran politician Rodolfo “RDR” del Rosario Sr, and cousin Second District Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo. Add to that Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and her Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP). HNP has put up a full slate against the Alvarez Wing of Alvarez. Alvarez’s credility has gone down to the bottom following his ouster in July as Speaker of the House, only less than two years of holding the post over issues of corruption, among others. He has also been called as a “snake in the grass” for fighting the Floirendos and the Del Rosarios despite their having ressurected his political career (Alvarez was a loser in two previous elections against candidates of the Floirendos and Del Rosarios) by helping him win his congressional post in the 2016 election. It is said that Floirendo, who contributed P70 million to the 2016 presidential campaign of then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, also convinced President Duterte to have Alvarez named as House Speaker. Alvarez is also accused of deleting, as the then House Speaker, in the national budget development funds for Davao del Norte following a spat with Tonyboy reported as triggered by a public quarrel between their girlfriends. Alvarez, apparently drunk with power as Speaker, made life harder for his former friend and political ally by filing a graft case gainst Floirendo and initiating a House inquiry into a Floirendo company. Alvarez practically positioned himself against one of the sparkplugs of the Davao del Norte economy by questioning the legality of a joint venture between the government and Floirendo-owned giant Cavendish banana company Tagum Agricultural Development Company (TADECO). The deal involved an unproductive reservation area of the Davao Penal Colony that Tadeco developed into a banana plantation that earned millions of pesos in taxes for government and employed thousands including inmates of the penal colony. Tadeco is credited with having placed the province in the map of the world’s biggest banana producers. For decades, the company has been a key player in Davao del Norte’s progress and economic development. Alvarez’s attack on Tadeco and Floirendo is practically an attack against the province’s economy, against businesses linked with Tadeco’s banana production and against the people of Davao del Norte and the thousands of workers employed by the company. If we want to look deep into the sentiments of the Dabaonons, Alvarez could be the most hated persona in Davao del Norte today. To add to the woes of the ex-Speaker, presidential daughter Mayor Sara has also called Alvarez an asshole and a liability to the Duterte administration. She has vowed to campaign against his reelection, for calling the HNP, the regional political party she organized, as an “opposition party.” It is reported that Mayor Sara played key role in the ouster of Alvarez as Speaker and her apparent anger could doom the ex-Speaker’s reelection, when she invades Davao del Norte to campaign for Gov. AGR, Tonyboy and Rodney and other HNP bets. For all his sins, we should just allow Alvarez to wallow in his political misfortune when the dust of the May polls would have settled down. He deserves it. But let us sympathize with Jubahib, his personal assistant he whimsically lured to run for governor under his Alvarez Wing in his quixotic fight against the political giants of the pprovince. There is still hope in the future for Jubahib, the former bus conductor. His mentor, Alvarez, has been persistentlly claiming that the Tagum-Davao-Digos segment of the Mindanao Railway Transit (MRT) was funded under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) when he was the sitting Speaker. Fact is that credit-grabbing Alvarez has nothing to do with the mega-project, which is being funded by the Chinese government and implemented as part of President Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” progam. Jubahib has also been repeating Alvarez’s claim so that we suspect he thinks he should get something out of the MRT. Well, when the May poll is over, and Jubahib finds himself jobless, he could apply as train conductor in the MRT on the recommendation of his credit-grabbing mentor Alvarez. As we said Jubahib has a future ahead after the election —- from bus conductor to train conductor!
Davao del Norte Second District Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo promised bigger congressional development funds for his district, following the ouster in July of First District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez as Speaker of the House of Representatives. I will triple the funds, said Floirendo as he was named as chairman of the House Public Works Committee under the administration of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who replaced Alvarez.
But the gains are no cause for celebration for the stalwarts of the Alvarez Wing of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino/Lakas ng Bayan (PDP/Laban), in the one-on-one battles with candidates of the Hugpong Ng Pagbabago (HNP).
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