THE popularity and political clout in Albay of seasoned politician, second district representative, Joey Salceda, appear to be waning now after a political “unknown” and newcomer placed a close second to him based on the result of an online survey conducted recently in the province.
Based on the survey tally conducted by ‘Tagkaro,’ a popular social media page in Bicol involving 1,400 respondents, Salceda, with 674 votes, is now just 42 votes behind Carmelo Redencion ‘Jun’ dela Torre de Leoz of the group, ‘Opinyon Bicol.’
They were followed newsman Domingo Arao (54 votes), former Albay second district board member, Gil Goyena (5 votes) and, Danilo Maravilla (3 points).
De Leoz is banking on his platform on addressing the economic, food, health, environmental, personal and community security concerns of Bicolanos continues to earn the trust and confidence of his provincemates thru his fearless handling of issues, prompt reporting and giving out of assistance to those in need. Thus far, his FB page called Opinyon Bicol, which earn him his monicker, Mr. Opinyon Bicol, has a following of over 230,000.
De Leoz officially declared his challenge against Salceda’s decades-long grip on Albay politics when he filed his certificate of candidacy last October (see also Pinoy Exposé article of October 11, 2021).
Waging a poor man’s war campaign, with no political machinery to speak of, de Leoz is backed up by his loyal followers who banded together and called themselves Opinyon Bicol Social Media Group that has mushroomed into chapters covering most of the 215 villages comprising the second district.
De Leoz has also gained the nod of Albayanos after promising to work for the return of the Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco) to the management of the people rather than by the Albay Power and Energy Corporation (APEC), which took over Aleco when Salceda was the governor of Albay.
APEC is much criticized by the Albayanos due to the constant brownout in the province which prided itself as host of two of the country’s existing geothermal power plants.