Aquino endorsement will bring additional points to Roxas to overtake rivals—Drilon

Senate President Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

President Benigno Aquino III’s endorsement could bring at least 10 points to former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, enough to overtake his rivals in the upcoming presidential elections in May, Senate President Franklin Drilon said on Monday.

“Alam mo si President Noy (You know President Noy), at this stage of his presidency, has the highest trust rating if you compare to the past five presidents and therefore, we’re confident that his endorsement will bring at least 10 points to Secretary Mar and therefore, would be enough to overcome the other candidates,” Drilon said in an interview at the Senate.

READ: Aquino ratings rebound seen to benefit Roxas

The Senate leader was responding to a reporter’s question about Aquino’s endorsement of Roxas’ presidential bid in a television advertisement. The president appeared on the TV ad with Roxas and the latter’s running mate, Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo.

His statement also came amid the latest survey conducted by The Standard from February 24 to March 1 which showed Senator Grace Poe as the voters’ top choice for president with 26 percent. Poe was closely followed by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte with 24 percent, Vice President Jejomar Binay with 23 percent, Roxas with 22 percent and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago with 2 percent.

READ: Duterte overtakes Binay in latest poll; Poe loses points

However, with a plus or minus 1.8 percent margin of error, the Senate leader pointed out that Duterte, Binay and Roxas are statistical tie in second place.

“So it’s a good starting point, we have two more months to go,” said Drilon, vice chairman of the Liberal Party.

“But what’s important, pagdating ng kampanyahan sa local, marami po sa aming mga kasamahan sa partido e wala pong kalaban at itong matibay naming partido Liberal ang syang tutulong ng husto sa aming kandidato at kami po ay niniwala na itong makinaryang ito at ang pagpapaliwanag na aming ginagawa na mainam na ipagpatuloy ang mga programa sa tuwid na daan, yan po ay magwawagi ang aming kandidato si Mar Roxas pagdating ng halalan.”

(But what’s important is when it comes to local campaign, most of our party members have no rivals and our solid Liberal Party will assist our candidates and we believe that our machinery and explanation that it would be better to continue the “Daang Matuwid” (“Straight Path”) will help our candidate Mar Roxas win in the elections.)

“I am confident na pag nag umpisa na ang local campaign, gagalaw yung aming local machinery (when the local campaign starts, our local machinery will help our candidates),” he further said. RAM