MANILA, Philippines — Former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas’ campaign manager has blamed the low survey ranking — two weeks before the elections — to the candidate’s long absence from the campaign trail.
According to Caloocan 2nd District Rep. Edgar Erice, the survey was conducted after Roxas’ return from the United States where his twins with wife, broadcaster Korina Sanchez, were born.
“It must be noted that the Pulse Asia survey was conducted last April 10-14, 2019, a little over a week after Mar arrived from the US, [he] was away from campaigning for 10 days,” Erice said in a statement on Tuesday.
Roxas said in a previous report that he willingly skipped 10 days to attend to his children, who needed to stay in the US longer due to vaccinations.
Roxas: I’m serious about the campaign
Erice also noted that since returning to the country, Roxas has worked hard in the campaign, as shown in an internal survey that they supposedly commissioned.
“A lot has happened since his return and since April 14. Mar has been actively going around the country and his many palengke (public market) runs have shown renewed warmth and enthusiasm from the people,” Erice said.
“This has been supported by our internal survey where he has regained his place among the top 12. Likewise, in the recent Magdalo survey dated April 23 to 25, Mar has regained his ranking in the top 12,” he added.
In a latest Pulse Asia survey released earlier, reelectionists Senator Grace Poe and Cynthia Villar shared the top spot in the rankings if elections were held in April. Out of the eight Otso Diretso candidates, only Senator Bam Aquino remained in Top 15 (13th spot) while Roxas landed in the 16th place.
READ: Poe, Villar share lead in Pulse Asia senatorial survey for April
Erice said that they would campaign harder to sway more voters.
“We thank our countrymen who continue to support Mar, and in the last remaining days of the campaign period, we will exert every effort to convince more of our countrymen to vote for Mar,” he added. /ee
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