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MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte ? Nacionalista Party standard bearer Sen. Manuel Villar arrived here yesterday for the second day of his slate's barnstorming in Eastern Visayas.
He spent almost an hour shaking hands with voters in the capital of this province, a known administration bailiwick, seemingly to make up for his non-appearance on Friday afternoon, which disappointed residents who had waited for him for hours in the streets.
Villar's blue helicopter landed at the Maasin City port at 10 a.m.
Riding in an SUV, he combed the streets of this fourth-class municipality, waving to the crowds that filled the sidewalks and mingled with the crowds in the city's two public markets.
Villar was accompanied by senatorial candidates Satur Ocampo and Ramon Mitra, and Martin Loon, the son of Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, another senatorial candidate whose detention in relation to a mutiny charge prevented him from going on the campaign trail.
Villar also met with Mayor Maloney Samaco at city hall.
"Villar should be President so we can upgrade Maasin. It should not be just a fourth-class municipality," Villar told the mayor.
Samaco is a known ally of provincial Gov. Damian Mercado and his brother, Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado, who are both staunch Lakas-Kampi members.
Streamers declaring Southern Leyte as "Gibo country"? a reference to administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro ? were aplenty, but Villar was unfazed. /INQUIRER
