I ATTENDED the launching of the Cebu Alliance for Duterte 2028 at Radisson Blu in Cebu City last Friday and the data provided by social and political analyst Malou Tiquia was enlightening.
She was talking about certain election data that is worth recalling.
For instance, PRRD won as president with 38.8% of the national votes after getting 15.8 million votes, with Central Visayas contributing 6.6% with 3.59 million votes.
The voter turn-out in Central Visayas was 85.17% which was the 4th highest nationally. This explains why national candidates would always make sure to court the Central Visayas voters because of the large turn-out of voters.
Cebu and Bohol carried the main bulk of PRRD votes while Western Visayas went for Mar Roxas while Eastern Visayas was split with Samar Provinces to Roxas and Leyte and Biliran provinces went to Duterte.
In the 2019 midterm elections, the Visayas reflected the highest approval rating of the first 3 years of the Duterte presidency. Similarly, Duterte-allied candidates dominated in the senate results in Central and Eastern Visayas areas. The so-called Otso-Deretso senatorial candidates failed to get any seat. The endorsement from Duterte carried enormous weight to candidates with minimum institutional party-building, this reflects his huge charismatic appeal to voters.
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In the 2022 presidential elections, BBM got 1,515,812 votes while Sara Duterte got 1,772,999 votes in Cebu province while Leni Robredo only got 577,105 votes.
In the Visayas regional outcomes, the BBM-Sara uniteam got the highest votes in Central and Eastern Visayas while Robredo prevailed in Western Visayas, owing to the Ilongo votes.
In the 2025 midterm elections, Visayas turned out the largest in registered voters nationwide with 68.6million with a voter turn-out for Central Visayas at 86.52%, the highest in 3 cycles.
The province of Cebu remained as the country’s 4th most vote-rich province with 2.17M voters in 2025.
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Prior to the program, I got the chance to converse on various topics with Atty. Sal Panelo while he was enjoying his brewed coffee after breakfast. He expressed confidence that the vigorous impeachment drive of some congressmen who are allied with BBM will fail because many congressmen are now entertaining serious doubts, even fears, with the looming presidential elections in 2028.
Many of them have expressed interest to make “ober da bakod” though the mechanics are still being worked out, he added.
Lawyer Rowena Guanzon is also a jewel when it comes to the impeachment topic.
Daghang mga kongresista ang nahadlok nga mopirma sa Articles of Impeachment kay bisan pa og mopirma sila, dili pa man na segurado nga matagak gyod si Inday Sara kay mag-hearing pa man didto sa senado, she opined.
Nevertheless, tungod kay nagkuyog na man karon ang mga blue, yellow, red ug pink, dako gyod kaayo og tsansa nga ma-impeach si Sara sa House of Representatives, morag given na man na. Pero, wa pay seguro didto sa senado kay lahi na man sab ang proseso didto. Sa pagka-karon, daghan pa man gihapon sa mga senador ang kaalyado ni Sara, she added.
Nan karon, kon mopirma ang mga kongresista sa Articles of Impeachment unya ma-acquitted lang gihapon si Sara sa senado, unsa man kahay iyang buhaton sa mga kongresista nga mibotar batok kaniya, labi na gyod tong mga traydor?
Iya pa kaha nga saligan o apilon sa iyang grupo inig piniliay na sa 2028?
May chance pa seguro tong mga gobernador ug mga mayor nga nagpakahilom lang kay mahadlok ug initan sa pamunoan pero kadtong mga traydor, labi na tong mga kongresista nga naapil sa multo nga mga flood control projects, mora’g lisod gyod seguro na matulon ni Inday Sara nga maapil sa iyang grupo.
