Why Sotto is No. 1; ‘AlDub’ is just a bonus

Senator Vicente Sotto lll. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Sen. Vicente Sotto III has the “AlDub” phenomenon to thank for topping the newest survey on senatorial candidates, or so a fellow reelectionist says.

“We all lose out to Sen. Sotto. He’s on the No. 1 TV program every week, every Saturday. I say wow!” said Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, who, like Sotto, will seek reelection next year.

“All [Sotto] has to do is tell a couple of jokes and that’s it. He’s a lucky guy,” said Osmeña, who ranked No. 11 in the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey on voters’ senatorial candidate preference.

Osmeña was referring to Sotto’s hosting job in the longest-running noontime variety show “Eat Bulaga” (EB) on GMA 7 as part of the comedy trio Tito, Vic and Joey.

The ratings of the noontime show continue to soar high in the national TV ratings since mid-July, when the audience was drawn to the “accidental” love team of split-screen couple Maine Mendoza or “Yaya Dub” and GMA 7 talent Alden Richards in its “Kalyeserye” (street series) segment.

Only last Saturday, EB broke Twitter records with more than 12 million tweets about the segment that featured the couple finally meeting for a lunch date.

But Osmeña said Sotto “deserves” his No. 1 survey ranking.

The senator said he was witness to Sotto’s hard work in the Senate as acting minority leader after Sen. Juan Pone Enrile’s one-year absence.

“Of course people don’t appreciate (Sotto’s work in the Senate) because they don’t see him on the floor. They see him on television,” Osmeña said.

Osmeña may rank No. 11 in the SWS survey, with a 28 percent rating, but he said given that those ranked number 7 to 11 had differences of one percent each, all five of them were “statistically tied.”

The survey, conducted from Sept. 2 to 5, showed that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima ranked No. 7 (with 33 percent), followed by former Sen. Miguel Zubiri (32), Saranggani Rep. Manny Pacquiao (30) and former Sen. Richard Gordon (29).

Osmeña, who chairs the committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies and the committee on energy, said he would just have to tell people what he has been doing in the Senate.

But Sotto, who said he was “humbled” by the results, attributed his top spot to the probability that “people are aware of my 100-percent attendance and participation in most Senate debates.”

“The survey will inspire me to do more,” Sotto said in a text message to the Inquirer.

Sotto said he had the same figures “months before the AlDub phenomenon” although his presence in the leading noontime show may have something to do with those big numbers.

“AlDub is a bonus,” Sotto said.

Long before the AlDub craze started in July, a Pulse Asia survey conducted from March 1 to 7 saw Sotto, along with former Sen. Panfilo

Lacson, topping the survey on senatorial preferences.

In that survey, Sotto and Lacson were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Both had a 97 percent awareness. Sotto got the vote of 59.3 percent of the respondents while Lacson was a close 58.3 percent.

In the Sept. 2 to 5 SWS survey, Sotto has pulled away with 58 percent, followed by Lacson with 47 percent.

A check by Inquirer Research showed that except for two Pulse Asia surveys in June 2014 and June 2015, Sotto had topped surveys done by Pulse Asia and SWS since last year.

For Pulse Asia, Sotto topped the surveys done in September 2014 (51.6 percent), November 2014 (54.7 percent) and March 2015 (59.3 percent).

The only two Pulse Asia surveys that landed him on second spot were surveys done in June 2014 (where he registered 53.48 percent and was second to former Sen. Francis Pangilinan) and June 2015 (where he was at 63.4 percent behind Lacson).

Sotto topped the September 2015 survey of SWS with 54 percent.