MANILA, Philippines ? Senator Richard Gordon and former Metro Manila development chairman Bayani Fernando launched their official campaign for president and vice president with a motorcade to Cavite on Tuesday.

At around 9 a.m., the Gordon-Bayani motorcade, running under the campaign tag "Transformers," assembled at the Petron station along the South Luzon Expressway in Muntinlupa.

The convoy of vehicles was visiting various towns and cities in the Cavite province before setting up in Imus for a kick-off rally on Tuesday afternoon.

Gordon, a former mayor of Olongapo City known for engineering the rebound of Subic Bay metropolitan area into an industrial hub after the departure of the US bases in 1992, and Fernando, a former Marikina City mayor who has bannered the city development as his campaign pitch, have been lagging in the popularity surveys. They, however, refused to be daunted by their pre-campaign poll numbers.