Cebu congressman, city councilor back Kiko Pangilinan senatorial bid

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All three politicians were former schoolmates at the University of the Philippines in Diliman

CEBU, Philippines – Cebu 3rd District Representative Pablo John Garcia and Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera confirmed to Rappler on Thursday, April 10, their support for the senatorial bid of aspirant Kiko Pangilinan.

Garcia, the brother of Cebu Governor and reelectionist Gwen Garcia, said in an exclusive interview that the congressman and Pangilinan were former colleagues and classmates in college and law school.

“We passed the bar together and I’ve known him since before as a man with principle and clear, and strong advocacies…I fully support Senator Kiko in the elections,” the lawmaker said.

Despite having one more term available for him, the congressman did not file his certificate of candidacy for any official post in October 2024, choosing to support his wife, Karen Flores-Garcia, who will be running unopposed for the position of Cebu’s third district representative.

Garcia is part of the province’s ruling party, the governor’s One Cebu and was the party’s previous bet for the third district before he decided to not run.

Garganera recalled the older days with Pangilinan being the student regent of the University of the Philippines (UP) system and Garcia as the editor-in-chief of the Philippine Collegian, the official student publication of UP Diliman.

“We’ve gone a long, long way. It doesn’t have to be that we belong to the same party but you know, there’s always that friendship. Yeah, I support [Kiko],” the councilor said in an interview.

Garganera is running under the party coalition of Kugi Uswag Sugbo (Kusug) and Panaghiusa headed by Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia and vice mayoral aspirant Jose Daluz III. The Cebu City mayor is the nephew of the governor and the congressman.

Garganera also highlighted Pangilinan’s advocacy for food security which the latter vowed in a press conference in Cebu City on Thursday morning, to fight for legislation dedicated to purchasing produce directly from farmers and fisherfolk.

“Bibilhin ng gobyerno na hindi ang middleman ang bumabarat. Kundi ang gobyerno ang aayos at tama ang presyo,” the senatorial aspirant said.

(The government will buy so that the middleman will not place the burden. Instead, the government will fix it and the price will be right)

Pangilinan highlighted that if elected, he would push for a free breakfast bill for students from daycare centers to Grade 12, emphasizing the correlation between nutrition and the quality of learning experienced by children affected by poverty.

“May mga data, statistics that compared schools with free meals and those without and it turns out, almost thirty percent less drop outs sa schools na meron free meal program and double digit din ang improvement sa test scores,” Pangilinan added.

(There is data, statistics that compared schools with free meals and those without and it turns out, the drop outs were thirty percent less in schools that had a free meal program and the test scores also had double-digit improvement) – Rappler.com