By Manny Piñol
The political warlords of Camiguin Island, a tiny province with a voting population of 57,000, used every dirty trick to dissuade people from attending the rally staged by Presidential frontrunner Rody Duterte and his running mate, Alan Peter Cayetano, today.
The threats and intimidation, however, did not stop about 5,000 Camiguiños from attending the afternoon rally in a place ironically named Mambajao Freedom Park, according to Peter Tiu Laviña, chief media officer of the Duterte campaign.
Camiguin Island is controlled by the Romualdo political clan.
The Governor of the Island Province is Jurdin Jesus Romualdo whose wife is the mayor of the capital town of Mambajao, Ma. Luisa Romualdo.
The couple's son, Xavier Jesus, is the Congressman representing the lone district of the island.
Laviña said he believes the Romualdos were behind the harassment, threats and intimidation against the Duterte campaign group and the local supporters.
Laviña said the electrical connection to the park was cut off shortly before the rally and home owners nearby were warned against allowing the Duterte team to connect their sound system to their power outlets.
The owners of a sound system in Mambajao, the capital town, pulled out from the engagement even after payment had been made. They were reportedly warned that they would not be allowed to do business in the island if they served the Duterte Team, Laviña reported.
Another sound system had to be brought in from Cagayan de Oro City so that the rally would not be disrupted.
Laviña said the harassment and intimidation actually started at the Balingoan Port in Misaims Oriental where Ferry Boats load vehicles and passengers to cross the channel from Mindanao main island to Camiguin.
Vehicles with Duterte stickers and posters were forced to the back of the line at the pier in Balingoan, Laviña reported.
Government employees also told a Duterte coordinator that they were threatened that their benefits, including cash allowances, would be withheld if they joined the rally.
"They were told to be delisted from 4Ps, PhilHealth, and scholarship programs," Laviña said.
Even lowly market vendors were warned that they would no longer be allowed to sell in the market if they attended the rally.
Gov. Romualdo, himself a former Congressman at the time his father, the late Pedro Romualdo was Governor, was a member of the Nationalist People's Coalition who was implicated in the PDAF scandal.
In 2013, the Romualdos left the NPC and joined the Liberal Party. They are supporting the presidential bid of former DILG Secretary Manuel Roxas III.
"Trapo politics is reigning in Camiguin and we need to expose this ugly side of the island. Our volunteers and supporters are being harassed, people are being warned not to be on the streets for the arrival of our candidates and not to attend the rally," Laviña said.
"The LGU is making it hard for us to hold a rally. But more than that, it is making it hard for the people of the beautiful island of Camiguin who want real change," he added.
The people of the island, he said, have been living in fear of the Romualdos for years.
Camiguin is one of the smallest yet one also of the poorest because of warlordism.
"Let us be reminded that this is the kind of oppression and dirty politics that encouraged Duterte joined the presidential race," Laviña said.
(Photos show the huge crowd which attended the Camiguin Rally of Duterte and Cayetano in spite of the threats from the political warlords of the province. Photos by the Duterte Media Group.)
