FILE PHOTO: Ferdinand Marcos Jr.and Sara Duterte-Carpio at a campaign sortie in Laguna on March 12, 2022. (Photo from the Facebook page of Bongbong Marcos)
ILOILO CITY, Philippines — With only one week remaining before the national elections, the tandem of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio will go for its final push—a series of miting de avance in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
The Marcos-Duterte tandem will be the first among all presidential and vice presidential bets to hold their miting de avance, an event that commonly marks the closing of the campaign season — a “final hurrah” for candidates, as some would say.
Kicking off in Iloilo
The tandem will kick off their series of miting de avance rallies in Visayas, specifically in the vote-rich Iloilo province, home to over 1.6 million voters.
On Tuesday, supporters of the Marcos-Duterte tandem will gather at the Guimbal football field in Guimbal town where the presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate, together with their senatorial slate, will make their appeal to the voters of the province.
Based on the latest Pulse Asia survey conducted from April 16 to 21, however, both Marcos and Duterte-Carpio are leading in the entire region.
In the region, Marcos garnered the support of 47 percent of the respondents compared to Robredo’s 34 percent.
Meanwhile, Duterte-Carpio garnered 50 percent compared to Senator Francis Pangilinan’s 29 percent and Senate President Vicente Sotto III’s 14 percent.
Home turf in Mindanao
After their miting de avance in Iloilo, the tandem will head down south in the Davao region—the home of the Dutertes.
Their miting de avance in the Mindanao region will be held at the Tagum City Hall grounds in Davao del Norte province on Thursday, May 5.
President Duterte dominated in the province in the 2016 elections. For perspective, he garnered over 382,000 votes in Davao del Norte alone. The closest to him was Senator Grace Poe who received over 12,000 votes.
Currently, Duterte-Carpio serves as the mayor of Davao City and has made this a huge part of her campaign speeches so far. According to Duterte-Carpio the city has now recovered from its debts and is now debt-free.
In some of her speeches, she also talked about the programs she implemented in the city, including entrepreneurship and livelihood programs for women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The latest Pulse Asia survey shows both Marcos and Duterte leading in the Mindanao region. Marcos garnered 67 percent compared to Senator Manny Pacquiao’s 14 percent and Robredo’s 11 percent. Meanwhile, Duterte-Carpio got 80 percent, compared to Pangilinan’s eight percent and Sotto’s six percent.
Ending in Luzon
Surprisingly, the Luzon leg of the miting de avances will not be held in Marcos’ home province, Ilocos Norte. Instead, it will be held in the capital region.
The Marcos-Duterte tandem will spend the final campaign day on Saturday, May 7, in Parañaque City where they will hold their final miting de avance.
After all, the National Capital Region is the second most vote-rich region in the country with over 7.3 million voters.
It is right behind the Calabarzon region which is home to over 9.1 million voters. Two weeks before the miting de avance in the NCR, the tandem visited the vote-rich provinces of Batangas and Laguna in the Calabarzon region.
Final miting de avance in NCR
May 7 will mark the last day of the campaign and so far, at least three presidential candidates will be holding their final miting de avance in the NCR— Marcos, Robredo, and Senator Panfilo Lacson.
For House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, one of Duterte-Carpio’s campaign managers, he expects hundreds of thousands of supporters to show up in the Marcos-Duterte events.
“These are the culmination of our cross-country campaign visits. On behalf of our candidates, let me express our sincere gratitude to our supporters, local officials, and community and sectoral leaders, and ordinary Filipinos who have been helping and supporting us. Let us keep it up until we achieve victory,” Romualdez said.
“Let us make sure that the will of the electorate prevails,” he added.
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