Friday, March 28, marked the first day of the official campaigning season for the 2025 midterm elections for candidates running for local positions.
But before the expected drama (and a little bit of comedy) of the heated campaign season, let us pause for a moment and take a look at who’s running against whom here in Laguna province – starting with the all-important gubernatorial race.
Gubernatorial race
In case you missed it, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has released as early as January “sample ballots” for each town and city for the May 12 elections.
And judging from the sample ballots for Laguna province, it’s going to be one heck of a race for all candidates running for the province’s highest posts.
Seven candidates are expected to run for governor, while six are running for vice governor.
Aside from the four most prominent candidates for governor – Vice Governor Karen Agapay, former broadcast journalist and 3rd District Representative Sol Aragones, Santa Rosa City Representative Dan Fernandez, and 2nd District Representative Ruth Hernandez – three other independent candidates (Caloy Reyes, “Koyang Noli” Samia, and Alexander Tolentino) are also gunning for control of the Laguna Provincial Capitol.
Battle of experience
As OpinYon Laguna had earlier speculated last year, this year’s election should be a “battle of experience” for all candidates for governor.
The four prominent candidates have all had experience in being legislators: two are incumbent representatives to Congress, one is a former representative, and one is the presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, which crafts local ordinances and resolutions.
“Ang isa sa mga pinaka-tinitingnan ngayon na criteria for governor ngayon ay kung ano na ang nagawa nila during their term bilang kinatawan sa Kongreso, lalo na sa mga intelihenteng botante,” one reporter told OpinYon Laguna’s editorial team.
Let’s quote from OpinYon Laguna’s October 28 article for a glimpse into what we mean by experience.
“Personality and media mileage aside, a quick check by the OpinYon research team points out that, overall, Hernandez may have an edge when it comes to performance as legislators,” that article pointed out.
“In her three terms as representative of Laguna’s 2nd District, Hernandez has filed a total of 523 legislative bills (348 principally authored, 175 co-authored).
“By contrast, Santa Rosa City Representative Fernandez (who, may we point out, also served as representative of Laguna’s 1st district before the City of Santa Rosa got its own seat in 2022), has filed just 160 legislative bills (125 principally authored, 35 co-authored).”
Not to mention, of course, the fact that Vice Governor Karen Agapay, in her capacity as presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, was also able to forward several important pieces of provincial legislation.
Brains vs. money and popularity?
“In fact, ang usap-usapan ngayon ay ang talagang magiging magandang magkalaban ay sina Cong. Ruth Hernandez at Vice Governor Karen Agapay,” our reporter pointed out.
Representative Dan Fernandez, it was said, had done poorly in past surveys despite the fact that he had been very prominent in the news in the months before the official campaign season.
It was possible that the “Duterte magic” may be at force here, as he is one of the co-chairpersons of the House Quad Committee (commonly known as “QuadComm”) that had conducted public investigations into the alleged extrajudicial killings committed during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Given that the former President, now detained at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands, still commands the support of many Filipinos, the fact that Fernandez has imposed himself as one of the faces of the QuadComm may have turned into a liability for him, political analysts now speculate.
Lackluster vice-gubernatorial race?
By contrast, it appears that voters in Laguna will have a really hard time trying to choose who will become the next vice governor in May 12.
As we’ve said earlier, six candidates are gunning for the post: Gem Amante, wife of incumbent San Pablo City Mayor Vicente Amante, 1st District Board Member JM Carait, incumbent 2nd District Board Member Peewee Perez, Liga ng mga Barangay President Lorenzo Zuñiga, Jr., and independents Mary Buena and Jorge Jerico Ejercito, son of former Governor E.R. Ejercito.
Most of these candidates, some analysts have pointed out, are prominent only within their own constituencies, which meant that they will have to exert more effort in convincing voters that they are the right choice to become the next “right-hand person” of the next governor.
Analysts see a repeat of the so-called “bandwagon” phenomenon, one of the most notable electoral trends in Philippine politics: that of voters choosing a candidate simply because of his or her alliance with another favored candidate, especially in terms of “running mates.”
“Actually, dapat ay mas maging makilatis ang mga kandidato para sa pagka-bise gobernador, since siya rin ang mamumuno sa Sangguniang Panlalawigan, na siyang gagawa ng mga batas na ipapatupad ng sinuman ang susunod na gobernador,” analysts told OpinYon Laguna.
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