Rizal (CNN Philippines) — A week before the start of the official campaign period, Liberal Party presidential candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II wooed the residents from one of Luzon’s vote-rich provinces, Rizal.
He has five stops in Rizal on Tuesday (February 2). He was in Rodriguez and San Mateo earlier and he will be heading to Binangonan and Taytay later today. He also visited Antipolo City, which has the most number of registered voters in the province.
Rizal has close to 1.5 million voters.
In the 2010 vice presidential race, Jejomar Binay beat Roxas by more than 132,000 votes in Rizal province.
When he was in Rodriguez, Roxas admitted that his loss in the province in 2010 concerns him. But he said that with the warm welcome he is receiving, he is optimistic about his chances this time around.
In all his stops so far, Roxas has been dangling the expanded Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) program he intends to carry out if elected president. It will automatically release funds of P1,000 per resident in the provinces. The funds will be used for projects identified by residents themselves.
This is his one of his main anti-poverty programs.
During his visit to Rodriguez, San Mateo, and Antipolo, Roxas was welcomed and praised by incumbent officials from either the Liberal Party or the Nationalist People’s Coalition, such as Antipolo City Mayor Casimiro Ynares.
The influential Ynares family have not yet endorsed a presidential bet.
Ynares said he has intelligent constituents and endorsing a single candidate may not really be effective anyway. But he said that they do welcome candidates who wish to visit their province to present their platform.
