Leni asks fellow ‘oragons’ to unite vs Bongbong’s Solid North

[A] Dios mabalos saindo gabos! #BICOLeni #RoxasRobredo pic.twitter.com/vt85TPIDve

— Leni Robredo (@lenirobredo) May 5, 2016

LEGAZPI CITY – Liberal Party vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo asked the 3.3 million registered Bicolanos voters to stand by her to beat the 2.4-million votes of the famous Solid North that Sen. Bongbong Marcos is banking on in the forthcoming May 9 elections.

Robredo made the call for a united support from her fellow “oragons” to overpower Marcos’ votes before the crowd of almost 6,000 supporters who attended the campaign rally of local LP candidates headed by re-electionist Congressman Fernando V. Gonzalez of the 3rd District of Albay in Ligao City Pavillion Thursday afternoon.

She recalled that when she first visited Ligao City and asked the support of the Albayanos, she was the sixth among the six candidates for vice-president with only one percent in the survey results.

Before the Dec. 25 survey, however, she overtook two of her foes and landed in fourth place.

Last February survey, she advanced against another one and became the third placer; then in early April, another survey was conducted and the result placed her on the second, with Marcos tying with her.

Before the April ended, another survey result showed that she was alone in the second place.

Just recently, to her surprise, she said, the result of another survey showed that she is now the leading the vice presidential race, with 30 percent and with Marcos tailing her at 28 percent.

With only two-point lead over Marcos, she said, she should double her effort in their campaign trail, that is why she is asking the help of fellow Bicolanos in Albay.

She said that if everyone has already a preference to support any of the three other Bicolanos running for the vice presidency, she is appealing to just give her the vote she needs to be on the second highest position of the land.

The vote of the Bicolanos should not be in vain just because of the division of the electorates in the region among its four candidates for the vice presidency, Robredo said.

The political rally was graced by President Benigno S. Aquino III, Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mel Sarmiento and Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje, a native of Guinobatan, Albay.

The President told the Albayanos to support Mar Roxas to continue the dream of the province to have more projects and programs for the better future of the countryside under Daang Matuwid.

He said he loves the Albayanos and the Bicolanos, that is why he gave more infrastructure projects and programs under his administration.

During the past administration, from 2005 to 2010, former congressman and now Gov. Joey Salceda, who was the chairman of the House committee on appropriations, brought to Albay almost PHP4.3 billion worth of infrastructure projects.

But in 2011 up to 2016, his administration delivered almost PHP21.8-billion infrastructure projects for Albay.

These were the construction of Daraga International Airport to be completed in 2017 with more than PHP4-billion allocation, the PHP1.7-billion urban floodway projects in Legazpi City – including the three pumping stations, among which is the Tibu Pumping Station in Barangay San Roque that was inaugurated Thursday, rehabilitation and construction of the Legazpi City base port, Tabaco Port, Pio Duran Port and the Dapdap fishing port.

Aside from these, the President said, he funded 77,536 4Ps beneficiaries compared to only 12,422 in 2010 during the past administration..

Out of more than 185,000 allocated classrooms nationwide, he gave 2,257 classrooms to Albay and now most of these have already been constructed while some are still under construction.

He also enrolled 1.81 million Albayanos in PhilHealth and a number of 9,852 senior citizens are now enjoying their support from the government.

President Aquino asked the Albayanos not to support Mayor Rodrigo Duterte because, he said, he is a dictator and a threat to the nation’s democracy.