By Alexandria Dennise San Juan
Senatorial bets endorsed by the administration-backed Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) party rallied for support from residents in vote-rich Quezon City during its campaign caravan there on Thursday.
(HNP / MANILA BULLETIN)
Colorful campaign posters and banners filled the Amoranto Sports Complex at Don A. Roces Avenue where the four-hour-long campaign rally of HNP, a regional political party of presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, was held.
Duterte-Carpio led the event with Quezon City mayoralty bet Joy Belmonte who chairs the local party Serbisyo sa Bayan Party (SBP), an ally of the HNP.
Belmonte said at least 13,000 HNP and SBP supporters in Quezon City trooped to the stadium to participate in the event and listen to the legislative agenda and platform of the senatorial candidates allied with the administration.
Among the HNP-endorsed candidates who took the stage and addressed the swarm of Quezon City residents were re-electionist senators JV Ejercito and Sonny Angara, former senators Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla, and Pia Cayetano, former presidential legal adviser Francis Tolentino, former PNP chief Bato Dela Rosa, former broadcast journalist Jiggy Manicad, and Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos.
Former special assistant to the president Bong Go was not able to attend the campaign sortie but was represented by actor Philip Salvador.
Also among the 13 candidates being endorsed by HNP but absent in the campaign caravan were re-electionist senators Koko Pimentel and Cynthia Villar, and Maguindanao representative Dong Mangudadatu.
Apart from the senatorial bets, also introduced during the caravan were the city local candidates running under Belmonte's SBP were Gian Sotto, who was gunning for the vice mayor position in the City, councilors, district representatives, and party-lists.
The fathers of Belmonte and Sotto, former House Speaker Sonny Belmonte and Senate President Tito Sotto, also graced the event to show their support for the candidates at the jam-packed stadium.
In a 2016 data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), it showed that Quezon City has the most number of registered voters in Metro Manila with a total of 1,150,342 registered for the May elections that year.
Opening the event at 3 p.m. was rock band Aegis while rapper Andrew E. entertained the attendees in the middle of the campaign. #MatalinongBoto2019