MANILA, Philippines – The administration-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas is setting its sights on southern Luzon as it brings its campaign to Camarines Sur in the Bicol Region on Friday, March 7.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his anointed senatorial candidates are set to lead a campaign rally at Pili town on Friday. Several candidates earlier made the rounds in Camarines Sur and nearby provinces ahead of the big Friday rally.
Coalition campaign manager Navotas City Representative Toby Tiangco, in a statement ahead of the rally, highlighted the “strategic importance of Camarines Sur, given its economic strength, population size and role in national politics.”
The province is dominated by the Villarfuerte clan, including National Unity Party president and Camarines Sur 2nd District Representative Luis Raymund Villafuerte. The NUP forged an alliance with Marcos’ Partido Federal ng Pilipinas for the 2025 elections.
The province’s governor is Vicenzo Renato Luigi Villafuerte, congressman Villafuerte’s son.
The father-son tandem are set to switch posts in the 2025 polls — with the older Villafuerte seeking the gubernatorial post and his son seeking the congressional seat. Another Villafuerte son, former governor Miguel Luis Villafuerte, is seeking reelection as the province’s 5th District representative.
NUP is a member of the administration coalition.
“As the third wealthiest province in the Philippines and the largest in Bicol by population and land area, Camarines Sur is a crucial battleground for Alyansa,” the press release from the coalition quoted Tiangco as saying.
The “important” province is one Marcos himself failed to win in 2022.
Camarines Sur, where former vice president and Marcos’ chief 2022 rival Leni Robredo hails from, is among the 15 provinces where Marcos did not dominate in the last presidential elections. Based on the official canvass of Congress, Robredo garnered 89% of the vote in the province — 958,905 in contrast to Marcos’ paltry 102,921.
Robredo’s dominance, or her choice as a locality’s majority choice as president, was felt only in Camarines Sur and nearly the rest of Bicol (Albay, Camarines Norte, Sorsogon, Catanduanes). In the end, the former vice president only won in 15 provinces.
Marcos won the presidency with over 31 million votes to Robredo’s 14.8 million.
And while previous election numbers are important to remember, much has changed in the political scene since Bicolanos cast their votes in the last national elections.
Marcos’ alliance with Vice President Sara Duterte is no more. A Marcos-allied House of Representatives, just before a long break for the elections, made Duterte first-ever Philippine vice president to be impeached.
Robredo is seeking a political comeback in 2025, but this time as Naga City mayor. The former vice president, however, has taken on a national role as one of the campaigners of independent senatorial bets Kiko Pangilinan and Bam Aquino.
Marcos has been pitching his Senate bets by contrasting them with the candidates of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
On the 2025 campaign trail, Marcos has chastized pro-China candidates, bets with ties to the bloody Duterte drug war, and has made repeated references to a grim past in the Philippines under his predecessor.
It’s the same kind of past that Robredo and her allies once warned people about and campaigned against, but most voters in 2022 apparently did not see it as a compelling argument.
For the 2025 campaign, Alyansa said their bets will “present their platforms focused on economic growth, infrastructure and agricultural development — all of which are key priorities for Camarines Sur.”
Alyansa, in its release, said their national bets will highlight “programs supporting farmers, fisherfolk and local industries” and infrastructure projects for Camarines Sur, including the Camarines Sur Expressway.
Camarines Sur is home to around 1.34 million voters. – Rappler.com