JE C.C.
The Waraynons of Samar did not allow the heavy downpour of rain in Tacloban from seeing their presidential bet, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. On stage, at the colossal UniTeam rally in Tacloban.
Popular comedian, Bayani Agabayani, was singing a familiar tune when he hosted Bongbong’s well-attended grand rally, in Imelda Romualdez-Marcos’s home province of Leyte, that was held yesterday, April 9.
“Sabi nila sibuyas daw kayo (They are saying all of you are onions)?” he asked the crowd, before leading them to saying “Hindi kami sibuyas, tao kami (We’re not onions. We are humans)!” Like Leni-Kiko’s Kakampinks, UniTeam’s rally participants are also perennially accused of faking crowd photos, where humans are replaced with onions to make a rally venue jampacked.
Agbayani also led the crowd to chant, “Hindi kami bayad (We’re not paid” which is a familiar line both recently chanted by both BBM-Sara and Leni-Kiko rally participants. It can be recalled that allegations of vote-buying have been thrown to the Uniteam’s camp, after videos of attendees getting paid for participating BBM-Sara’s rallies, circulated on the internet.
The said Tacloban leg of the defeated 2016 vice presidentiable’s Leyte trip, is now Marcos Jr’s crowning glory, for having the biggest crowd size he has ever mustered since his presidential campaign began. During his speech, Bongbong expressed his awe at witnessing such a crowd, even though his running mate, Sara Duterte-Carpio was not around.
Leyte is expected to cast 1.3 million votes in the May 9, 2022, national polls. Former Governor and former Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla promised the former dictator’s son a landslide victory or 80% of the province’s votes.
In 2016, Bongbong dominated the Vice Presidential race in the province by scoring 50% of the votes, while his closest rival, Leni Robredo won just 29% of the votes. His win in Leyte ultimately made him win the entire Eastern Visayas region by a slim margin over Robredo, who won Southern Leyte and the three Samar provinces.
