CEBU CROWD Presidential aspirant Sen.Miriam Defensor-Santiago arrives on the campus of the University of Cebu, one of the most highly populated schools in Cebu City. CHRISTIAN MANINGO/CEBU DAILY NEWS
SEN. MIRIAM Defensor-Santiago yesterday urged college students of voting age to help her win May’s presidential election by asking their elders to vote for her.
Santiago remains a favorite on school campuses but is raising the rear in voter preference polls. Campus polls have her leading the five-way race, largely because of her strong presence on social media.
“It appears that if all university students go out to vote in the May elections and influence their peers and elders to throw their support behind me, I will be the next President of the Philippines,” Santiago said in a statement.
In three campus polls conducted after the Feb. 9 kick-off of the campaign, Santiago was the clear front-runner among students of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), Holy Angel University (HAU) in Pampanga province and Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Calamba City in Laguna province.
At UA&P, Santiago got 43.2 percent of the total 696 votes, followed by Sen. Grace Poe (18 percent), Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas (15.5 percent), Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (14.9 percent), and Vice President Jejomar Binay (8.3 percent).
HAU reported that in a survey of 5,000 students, Santiago was on top with 40 percent, followed by Duterte (34 percent), Poe (12 percent), Binay (7 percent) and Roxas (4 percent).
Nearly 60 percent of Colegio de San Juan de Letran’s students in Calamba picked Santiago as President, followed by Duterte (28 percent), Poe (8 percent), Binay (4 percent) and Roxas (3 percent).
Santiago also led in six campus polls conducted prior to the start of the campaign: University of the Philippines Los Baños, with 66 percent of the vote in December 2015 and 86 percent in January 2016; UP Manila (60 percent), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (64 percent), University of Santo Tomas (66 percent), Ateneo de Manila University (37 percent), and University of Northern Philippines (36 percent).
Santiago focuses her campaign on campuses where students love her speeches that are peppered with insights, insults and jokes.
On Friday, the senator spoke before students of University of Cebu in Cebu City, one of the most highly populated schools in the Visayas.
Santiago and her running mate, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., are banking on the millennial vote (people 18 to 35 years old), which accounts for 37 percent, or 20 million, of the Philippines’ 54 million voters.
Marcos earlier urged young voters to be more discerning in their choice of candidates.
“Look for candidates who have the track record and seek to unite rather than divide the country,” said Marcos, son of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, who placed the Philippines under martial law for 18 years and was toppled in the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986.