Presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo in Cebu City on Monday, December 13, 2021. (Photo by Jay Ganzon / OVP)
MANILA, Philippines — Still facing her ‘biggest challenge’ of clearing misleading information against her, Vice President Leni Robredo’s survey rankings may start seeing an increase by the time the official campaign period starts, and candidates do televised debates.
This was the view of Robredo’s spokesperson, lawyer Barry Gutierrez, when asked Thursday on ABS-CBN Teleradyo’s On the Spot whether there is still enough time for Robredo to rally support and catch-up to the frontrunner, former senator Bongbong Marcos.
Robredo is currently a far second in the presidential survey of Pulse Asia, but Gutierrez stressed that this is also the same scenario in 2016 — when Robredo ran and won against Marcos and other candidates in the vice presidential race.
“Ito hindi ‘to speculation batay ito sa nakaraang nangyari — no’ng 2015, 2016, ganito rin ang sitwasyon, humahabol si Leni Robredo sa mga ibang kandidato, by December 2015 malayo-layo pa siya sa mga frontrunners,” Gutierrez said.
(This is not speculation, it is based on past events — in 2015, 2016, we faced a similar situation, Leni Robredo was trying to catch-up with other candidates, as she was very far from the frontrunners by December 2015.)
“Pero no’ng nangyari ‘yong debate […] klaro, nakita ng mga tao kung sino ang magaling, nakita ng mga tao kung sino talaga ang merong ibubuga,at sa dulo, di ba, kahit na close race, siya ang nagwagi ‘di ba,” he added.
(But when the debate happened, it became clear who she was, the people knew who was doing good, who can do a lot of good things for the government, and in the end, even if it was a close race, she won.)
Robredo won against Marcos in that race by a slim margin of 260,000 votes. Marcos contested her victory but the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, eventually dismissed his election protest.
Gutierrez said that based on their experience, letting people know who Robredo really is and what she has done has translated to support — even with the proliferation of fake news remaining the big hurdle for them.
“Ang pinaka-malaking challenge talaga na hinaharap namin ‘yong paninira at maling impormasyon na kinalat sa social media kay VP Leni, sa kurso ng halos anim na taon. At ang aming experience, basta mapakilala nang maayos, basta mapakita na ito ang kanyang mga ginawa, ito ang kanyang mga tinulungan, […] madaming nakukumbinse na sumuporta eh,” he added.
(The biggest challenge for us really is the deluge of wrong information on social media about VP Leni, over the course of six years. And with our experience, as long as we are able to introduce her properly, as long as we can show them what she has done, whom she has helped, a lot are convinced to support her.)
On Wednesday, Pulse Asia released its latest 2022 presidential and vice presidential survey which showed that Robredo got 20 percent of the respondents’ votes if elections were held on the survey period of December 1 to December 6.
But while her numbers increased, Robredo was a far second to former senator Bongbong Marcos, who leads all presidential aspirants with 53 percent of the respondents picking him.
This led Gutierrez to say on Wednesday that it appears the 2022 polls are shaping to be a Robredo-Marcos contest, as other candidates like Pacquiao, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, and Senator Panfilo Lacson lagged way behind.
Still, Gutierrez said that what happened before the 2016 elections provides Robredo’s team confidence knowing that there is still a chance to snag the lead from Marcos.
“So kami, confident na confident kami na pagdating no’ng aktwal na kampanya — kasi wala pa naman tayo do’n eh, di ba ito ay, lahat ito, kumbaga preliminary pa lang ‘to na banggaan. ‘Pag dating ng aktwal na kampanya at magkakaroon na tayo ng mga televised debates, magkakaroon na tayo ng mas pursigidong pagsusuri ng ating mga kandidato, lalabas ‘yong totoong lakas ni VP Leni,” he said.
(So for us, we are really confident that by the actual campaign period — because we are not there yet, all of these are just preliminary exchanges. When the actual campaign period starts, and when we have televised debates, and when we have a more driven scrutiny of the candidates, VP Leni’s true strength would emerge.)
“Gaya nga ng sinabi ko eh. In two months umakyat siya ng 12 points, so six percentage points per month. Eh apat na buwan pa ‘yan eh, so kayang-kaya ‘yan,” he added.
(Just like I have said, in two months her score increased by 12 points, so six percentage points per month. But we still have four months to go, so we can do that.)