Robredo’s people’s campaign would prevail on D-Day despite surveys, says spox

Vice President Leni Robredo during the Tagayan, a ritual sealing the “Quezonduan” between presidential candidate and the people of Quezon on April 28, Thursday at the Quezonduan: Grand People’s Rally in Lucena City, Quezon. (VP Leni Media Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Even if there was little movement in Vice President Leni Robredo’s survey numbers as of April, her spokesperson said on Monday that they are confident that the people’s campaign would emerge victorious come May 9, election day.

In a statement, Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said that despite her losing one percentage point in Pulse Asia’s latest polls, the numbers confirm Robredo’s upward trajectory — adding that the house-to-house campaign has shown how many people are now supporting the Vice President.

“The latest Pulse survey conducted last April further confirms Vice President Leni Robredo’s upward trajectory and momentum […] The remaining weeks of the campaign have seen intensified efforts at house-to-house, person to person campaigning by thousands of volunteers, which we believe will translate to support on election day,” Gutierrez said.

“This has truly become a people’s campaign, a grassroots movement of Filipinos from all walks of life and from all over the Philippines. We put our trust that this people’s campaign will win the day on May 9,” he added.

Gutierrez claimed that the survey has not captured the 412,000-strong rally in Pasay City for Robredo’s 57th birthday last April 23 — as Pulse Asia conducted the study from April 16 to 21.

A lot of the country’s A-list celebrities showed up to endorse Robredo in the Pasay grand rally — among them Maricel Soriano, Vice Ganda, Regine Velasquez, Ogie Alcasid, Janno Gibbs, Gary Valenciano, and John Arcilla all supporting Robredo.

“Her numbers remain encouraging, even if the survey does not yet capture the series of massive rallies from mid April onwards, including the record breaking 400k+ Pasay Rally on April 23,” he added.

In April, Pulse Asia’s survey showed Robredo still being a far second to frontrunner and former senator Bongbong Marcos. Robredo’s voter share was at 23 percent, while Marcos kept his 56 percent share since last March.

READ: Almost no movement in Pulse Asia’s latest survey; Marcos still leads

This is not the first time that Robredo’s camp expressed confidence in their chances despite the huge gap between her and Marcos.  Last March 14, when Pulse Asia data showed Robredo only having 15 percent of the votes, Gutierrez said that the survey did not capture the big rallies held by the opposition — including the PasigLaban sortie which drew over 137,000 attendees.

Then, when Robredo’s survey numbers increased, Gutierrez said that the surveys are starting to reflect the massive groundswell already.

EDV