Educator ends Cua dynasty in ‘Happy Island’
- Bicolmail Web Admin
- May 23
- 4 min read
By Rhaydz B. Barcia
TIRED and fed up with business monopolies—particularly the skyrocketing prices of gasoline—the people of Catanduanes rallied behind an educator’s candidacy to topple a political dynasty that ruled the island for over two decades.
Patrick Alain Azanza, 56, former president of Catanduanes State University (CatSU), emerged victorious in the tightly contested gubernatorial race on May 12, 2025, defeating Vice Governor Peter “Boss Te” Cua, brother of outgoing Governor Joseph “Boboy” Cua. Azanza won by a slim margin of 362 votes, garnering 76,169 votes against Cua’s 75,807.
Azanza’s campaign was powered by grassroots support, particularly from the youth. Volunteers distributed campaign comics across the far-flung towns of the island to drum up support and challenge the longstanding Cua dynasty.
Catanduanes has 200,804 registered voters—102,312 male and 98,492 female—spread across 248 voting centers.
Belonging to a family of educators, Azanza said he was compelled to resign from his post at CatSU following insistent public clamor to take on the Cuas, whose control over key businesses—particularly gasoline and abaca—had long drawn criticism.
“I had no political machinery. Both my parents were teachers at CatSU, as is my wife,” Azanza said. “But the students and the people believed in the fight.”
CatSU has 14,000 students across the island, with 6,300 based in Virac alone. “These students were instrumental in our campaign to fight poverty and dismantle monopolies that had severely affected abacaleros (abaca farmers), fisherfolk, and farmers—many of whom are the parents of these students,” he added.
Azanza said that 90 to 95 percent of his supporters were anti-dynasty and anti-monopoly. “Around 60 percent of CATSU students come from families of abaca farmers who have been burdened by high fuel prices and low abaca buying prices. The Cuas control both the gasoline and abaca industries on the island.”
He detailed how the price of abaca has been manipulated: “Originally, abaca sold for P120 per kilo. But under the Cuas, it was bought at just P54 to P58. Even when market prices rose to P180 per kilo, they still only offered P78 to P85. They also imposed the so-called ‘resico,’ where one to two kilos of abaca were deducted during weighing—cheating the farmers out of their rightful earnings.”
Fuel prices on the island are also the highest in the Bicol Region, Azanza said, ranging from P80 to over P90 per liter. “These costs are passed on to commuters, especially students, by tricycle and public utility drivers,” he added. “This has forced many students to quit school and work in Manila instead of finishing their education.”
“The price of fuel in Catanduanes is like gold,” he said. “To break the Cuas’ monopoly and dynasty, we declared May 12 as our own Independence Day—freeing the Catandunganons from exploitative, monopolistic, and dynastic control.”
Azanza noted that none of the Cuas won in the recent election. “Even their brother-in-law, Atty. Leo Mendoza, lost his re-election bid as mayor of San Andres to Dr. Aly Romano. Governor Joseph Cua lost his mayoral race to Atty. Sinforoso ‘Posoy’ Sarmiento. His son Chino also failed in his bid for the town council.”
“I am the last warrior who stood against the Cuas,” Azanza said. “They were grooming a third generation to continue their reign, but that too was stopped. The business sector, the clergy, student organizations, TODA groups, fisherfolk, abacaleros, farmers’ associations, and cooperatives all came together. They approached me and asked me to run, believing that my track record as CatSU president gave me the best shot to defeat the dynasty.”
“My candidacy was supported by the people, 38 local businessmen vowed to help at least to lend a car, trucks, sound system for sound tracking, tricycle operators initiated their campaign, the people provided food for the volunteers and free transportation. It’s a bayanihan way of campaigning. I don’t have paid campaign staff. All volunteers who spent their own resources to campaign for me. The youth go out and do their own campaigning through house to house including senior citizens who believe in the cost “padagos na patanos” meaning to continue doing what is right,” he added.
Azanza said that he presented his platform of government through comics, using Tagalog language so the people could easily understand his aspiration, mission, and vision in the land of the hauling winds. The reading material according to him was printed by the volunteers using ordinary printers.
At least 20,000 copies of comics were given throughout the island in various families on the average it reached 60,000 voters, he said.
“As the new governor, I will open our province to the big players like Petron and Shell in Catanduanes to curtail the gasoline monopoly. We also intend to put up a provincial gas station. We will sell the gasoline at a reasonable price,” he said.
Asked if he is not afraid of the possible repercussions of his action as he will be competing with the Cua’s gasoline businesses, Azanza said that he is not afraid to fight with them to liberate the people from the bondage of monopoly and exploitation.
“I was jailed by the Marcos regime when I was the former UP student council chairman in 1987. Before the revolution I was put behind bars as I’m part of the rallyists in Laguna where student leaders participated and were watered canon. I was thrown out but not afraid to fight for our rights. My family is afraid but all my two children including our four adopted children were working abroad so they’re far from the possible victims of physical harm,” he said.
When asked what would be the changes in Catanduanes when he takes the helm, Azanza said that Catanduanes will be free from monopoly and dynasty.
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