BACOLOD CITY – Negrenses gave Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino and Manuel “Mar” Roxas II a virtual pop star welcome during their visit here late last week.

Aquino and Roxas, who just recently declared their intention to run for President and Vice President under the Liberal Party in the 2010 elections made Bacolod their initial stop during the first leg of their Visayan tour last week.

Field accounts said a sea of people clad in yellow and waving yellow flags, shouting “Noy-Mar Na!” met the two as they went through the cities of Talisay, Bacolod and Bago, hometown of Roxas’ mother, Judy Araneta Roxas.

Their declaration onstage in each of the three cities they visited that they are running in the 2010 polls to effect real change in the country were met by continuous thunderous applause from the thousands of people that came out to meet them. “If we continue with this momentum, we will make change a reality,” Aquino remarked at one point.

The pair began their visit to the Negros Occidental capital with a courtesy call on Governor Isidro Zayco at the Provincial Capitol where they were warmly received by government employees.

Accompanied by former Negros Occidental Governor Daniel Lacson Jr., the two were met by the mammoth crowds in both Talisay and Bago cities.

Civic leader and businesswoman Millie Kilayko, who witnessed the enthusiastic response given Aquino and Roxas said the two were “mobbed all over. In Talisay, a crowd of about 3,000 literally rushed towards them when they arrived at the Talisay City covered court. They were shouting “Noynoy Mar! Noynoy Mar!”

Kilayko continued, “Noynoy and Mar were supposed to board their vehicle after the rally in Talisay at the entrance of the rally venue, but the crowd wouldn’t let them go, so they had to proceed about 150 meters away and into the highway, before they could get away.

At the Bacolod City government center, the crowd of some 1,000 government employees was likewise intense. They showered Aquino and Roxas with yellow confetti and packed themselves around the two as they made their way up to the third floor of the building to meet with the Mayor (Evelio Leonardia).
In Bago City, when the two went to meet with Mayor Ramon Torres and Vice Mayor Nicholas Yulo, the crowd of about 4,000 went wild and also wouldn’t let the two men leave. They were virtually wrapped around the two, hugging and kissing them, and people were laughing and crying at the same time!”

After a courtesy call on Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra, Aquino and Roxas went to the University of St. La Salle coliseum to meet with student volunteers. The crowd, according to Kilayko was again huge, with La Salle students flocking around the two men, many asking them to autographs their shirts.

“It was 1986 all over again,” exclaimed Kilayko, referring to the campaign of Aquino’s mother, Cory Aquino when she visited Bacolod during her campaign against Ferdinand Marcos in the 1986 Snap Elections. “Everyone witnessed a tremendous overflow of support from the mass of people and the youth some of which were overheard they were willing to give up their lives for someone or a credible team that can give them a hopeful promise of a better future.”

In all their stops in Negros, both Aquino and Roxas promised crowds a government free of corruption and committed to serving the people’s interest. “I do not believe in transactional politics or the politics of expediency,” underlined Aquino. “I will stand for what is right.” (with a report by Louie Marie H. Montelibano)