Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso (L) and Vice President Leni Robredo | INQUIRER.net stock image
MANILA, Philippines — The call for Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso to drop out of the presidential race will only hurt the odds of Vice President Leni Robredo winning the election and may even boost the front-runner, former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
That was the contention of the mayor’s chief strategist Lito Banayo and the Aksyon Demokratiko chair Ernesto Ramel Jr. as they pushed back against the narrative that the May elections had become a two-horse race between Marcos and Robredo based on the latest Pulse Asia survey.
At a press briefing in Manila on Friday, the two emphasized Domagoso’s strength as the top second choice of respondents should their preferred candidate withdraw from contention, while also downplaying the accuracy of the Pulse Asia poll, which placed their candidate a far third behind Marcos and Robredo.
Banayo and Ramel turned instead to the unpublished results of a recent online survey by the less established Tangere, which they said predicted a three-way race between Marcos, Robredo and Domagoso, with the last one most likely to prevail should any of the other two drop out.
“People are saying candidates against Junior (Marcos) should unite to defeat Junior. What you see in the data here is the vote for Isko won’t go to VP Leni. His vote will go to BBM or Marcos Jr.,” Banayo said.However, in the latest Pulse Asia survey, Robredo gained 9 percentage points while Domagoso lost 2 points.