‘Otso Diretso’ to stick with door-to-door campaign strategy

MALABON, Philippines — The opposition senatorial slate on Wednesday said they will stick to their door-to-door campaign strategy despite the results of a recent Pulse Asia survey which showed that most of their bets still suffer from low voter awareness.

Of the “Otso Diretso” senatorial candidates, only former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and reelectionist Senator Bam Aquino registered a statistical chance of winning in the elections according to a Pulse Asia survey conducted from Feb. 24 to 28.

READ: Poe, Villar lead survey; Go, Dela Rosa post gains

Former Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada said that all of their candidates saw a jump in voter awareness, which would mean that their strategy has been effective so far.

“I think we’re going to stick to the same strategy and if were able to raise enough funding, then we will go into advertisement,” Tañada said in a press conference at Balsa sa Niugan Restaurant here.

However, he acknowledged that they still lack a big campaign strategy which is the placement of television advertisements. This is due to lack of funding, he said.

The Otso Diretso senatorial slate have been banking on a house-to-house strategy that aims to reach out directly to the people.

READ: ‘Otso Diretso’ candidates rely on house-to-house campaign

Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, meanwhile, said that the results of the Pulse Asia survey is “both a challenge and an incentive” to them and their volunteers.

He said they are mainly relying on the help of their volunteers on their campaign and they hope that they are able to “create a snowball effect” that would catapult them to victory in the May 13 elections.

“Our hope, of course is that in the next 54 days, we are able to create a snowball effect na yung mga volunteers namin, madagdagan nang madagdagan and finally lumaki enough so we are able to hit the critical number of people required to run and fight toe-to-toe with the more-money campaign of the administration,” he said.

Hilbay also pointed out that the Otso Diretso is “heavily invested” in what he called their “people’s campaign” because they believe that is “the way a campaign should be done.”

“That’s part of the principled campaign we’re trying to run, na talagang tumataya kami doon sa mga tao. Hindi lang ‘yung gumagastos ng pera para maraming ads, tarpaulins, kung anu-ano pang collaterals,” he said.

For her part, Marawi civic leader Samira Gutoc called on the overseas Filipino workers and voters (OFWs) to “take an interest” in the campaign.

She noted that there are numerous of (OFWs) who have been delisted from voting because they do not participate in the elections.

“It goes to show that there are many people who are frustrated sa electoral process na napakamahal,” Gutoc said.

“May apathy around us na ayaw na nila bumoto sa senador or national because they feel na pare-pareho lang naman kayo eh. What goodness can you offer?” she added.

Meanwhile, Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano said that his party-list have been conducted their own surveys to gauge their progress in terms of voter awareness and he noted that the opposition bets are gaining “positively.”

“Ang magandang sign dito ‘yung nasa taas, may downward trend, halos negative,” he said.

“They’re going down negatively and we’re going up positively,” Alejano added.

He said he remains hopeful that the trend would continue and their slate “would be able to make it.”

“Ang sa amin lang dito, ang importante kasi, unang una is we’re willing to serve, we’re offering ourselves to the people and it’s up to the people,” he said. /je