Monday, April 2, 2007

Garcia spills the beans on Miraflores

Noel Cabobos

KALIBO, Aklan—In a desperate move to save the family from breaking apart, reelectionist Cong. Florencio Miraflores has offered a deal to his nephew Ibajay Mayor Jun Garcia, husband of gubernatorial bet Mabeth Garcia, which confirms that his alliance with reelectionist Gov. Carlito Marquez with Tibyog coalition is an alliance for money.

“I-goodtime na lang natin ang pera ni Lito,” Garcia told the media quoting Miraflores whom he claimed called him over the phone to convince his wife Mabeth Garcia to just withdraw from the gubernatorial candidacy.

Miraflores was not immediately available for comment.

Garcia said he was indignant of the proposal and told Miraflores that Mabeth will never back out from the race even if Miraflores’ wife Lulu who is running against him withdraws her mayoral candidacy.

“We loved him and we supported him all the way since he started in politics but this time it is different. The people want Mabeth to run for governor and nobody can stop her from doing so,” Garcia emphasized.

Sources said Miraflores was forced to offer the said deal to Garcia because he was being financially gripped by Marquez who is calling the shots in the financial allocation of Tibyog candidates.

Marquez, sources added, was terribly disgruntled by Mabeth’s running for the gubernatorial post against him so he has not yet released any amount allocated to Miraflores.

Sources said Tibyog has allocated at least P70 million to run the Tibyog campaign against the United Opposition here.

Earlier, during the Tibyog press conference, Marquez told The Daily Guardian that he was satisfied with Miraflores when the latter asked her wife to run against Mayor Garcia for the mayoral seat of Ibajay but sources said he was actually very mad that’s why he gave Miraflores a deal to tell Mabeth to just withdraw her candidacy.

Mabeth, on the other hand, called the offer political blackmail.

“I don’t need politics to live a good life. I am enjoying a good life. The problem here is Lito Marquez. That is the clamor of the many—the business sector, the barangay and the people. The problem is his administration that is why I am running to offer the Aklanons an alternative, a homegrown leader who will always be here no matter what. A leader who will move Aklan forward. An Aklan that every Aklanon deserves,” she said.

“There’s no looking back. I’m moving on. I’m in and I’m in to win,” she said.

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