SHARON SILENCES PRO-ERAP HECKLERS
by Jowel F. Canuday, Inquirer News Service, PDI Mindanao Bureau, March 19, 2001

DAVAO CITY--One of the two "not-so-secret" weapons of the People Power Coalition used her charms on a rowdy crowd and turned the tide in favor of the administration-backed senatorial candidates against pro-Estrada hecklers.

It was no secret that megastar Sharon Cuneta, wife of PPC candidate Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, was going to hit the campaign trail at some point for her husband and the party.

But when she did so at the mammoth rally of the PPC here Saturday night, she succeeded in hushing the crowd and taming even the rowdiest hecklers who were loyal to ousted President Joseph Estrada.

The crowd of 30,000, including about 100 staunch Estrada supporters, fell silent when Cuneta sang her hit song, "Kahit Konting Pagtingin."

The thumbs-down sign that the pro-Estrada group was flashing at the PPC candidates onstage was turned up to show their approval.

The Estrada supporters then started waving at Cuneta who was escorted by her husband as she shook hands with the people.

Cuneta, who went onstage after all seven PPC senatorial candidates who were present had finished speaking, disarmed the pro-Estrada crowd when she asked them to vote straight PPC.

The rally was the biggest since the coalition started its nationwide campaign, said candidate Wigberto TaÒada.

Cuneta is one of two celebrity wives of PPC senatorial candidates. The other is multi-awarded actress and Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos, spouse of Rep. Ralph Recto.

The two are expected to play a big role in the campaign to get their husbands, as well as the others in the 13-member PPC ticket, elected.

Arrested

The rally turned rowdy at about 7 p.m. when someone in the pro-Estrada group threw a bag of ice water and an empty bottle of an energy drink at the stage while reelectionist Sen. Franklin Drilon was dancing.

The thrower, Manuel Borja, 24, was arrested by police. The water and bottle missed Drilon by a meter.

The incident caused a minor stampede when the people in front of the stage panicked and scampered in different directions.

Some people were hurt, but not seriously, because they returned to their places when Cuneta began singing.

PPC campaign organizers led by Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara asked police not to arrest members of the pro-Estrada group to show that the PPC respects everyone’s opinions.

Drilon said the incident served to show that only a small segment of the population still supports Estrada and that these people were not tolerant of other’s views.

‘Uneducated, angry’

He said he was not offended by the incident, not even when the pro-Estrada group chanted, "Drilon, baboy (Drilon, pig)."

"That is just the language of people who are uneducated and angry," he said.

Vice President Teofisto Guingona, who addressed the rally, said his group did not mind the pro-Estrada forces.

"They were drowned out by the pro-PPC crowd so they became irrelevant, immaterial," Guingona said.

"Let us respect each other because we have our own opinions. Show that Davao residents have respect and good manners," Bohol Rep. Ernesto Herrera, a PPC senatorial candidate, exhorted the audience in Visayan.

Even Joker Arroyo, another candidate, was heckled by people who chanted "Joker, alis (Joker, go away)."

"Let them stay even if they heckle us. We don’t give too much importance to hecklers," Arroyo told reporters after he had addressed the crowd.

Instead, Arroyo said the PPC has shattered the myth that Mindanao was "pro-Erap country."

The pro-Estrada group positioned itself to the left of the makeshift stage and unfurled banners that read, "Magdasal na kayo, 13-0," "Oust Chinese Imperialist," "Boycott ABS-CBN" and "Michael Sinsuat supports Erap for prosperity, posterity, democracy."

Luz Adao, Mindanao chair of the Masa ni Erap Movement, who was at the PPC rally, firmly denied organizing the pro-Estrada crowd.

At the height of the "Erap Resign" campaign in November last year, Adao led some 50 Estrada supporters in a picket at the Almendras Gym where then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was attending a multisectoral consultative assembly.

Adao’s group threw crumpled copies of Pinoy Times at Macapagal’s vehicle.

On Saturday night, many of those who were against the President were humming Sharon Cuneta’s songs.