Davao City Mayor and Presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
WITH more people realizing that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is no longer a “sideshow joke,” an anti-Duterte vote will emerge to stop the mayor from winning it all in May, according to a spokesperson of Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas.
“It’s actually the opposite,” said Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez to a question whether the LP was worried that momentum would swing in Duterte’s favor after he topped the latest polls of both Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations, dislodging Sen. Grace Poe from the top spot.
“Now, more people are realizing that Mayor Duterte is a serious candidate and not just a sideshow joke, which was the previous impression of him,” Gutierrez told reporters at the LP’s Balay headquarters in Quezon City.
“They’re now taking seriously his pronouncements and his candidacy. And I think there’s a real possibility that there will be a consolidation of the anti-Duterte vote,” he said.
“More and more people will wonder if they really want Mayor Duterte to be their president given his inconsistency, his weak position on China, his total lack of any diplomatic ability and what he has said on killings,” he said.
“So, I think there’s a slowly emerging constituency that is going to his high survey numbers. And you know that will eventually bring his numbers down,” Gutierrez said.
He said Roxas was not “too concerned” about his own standing in the race. Roxas continues to trail Poe and Duterte and is currently tied with Vice President Jejomar Binay in third or fourth place.
“We’d rather have a slow and steady rise than a big surge only to end in a big fall. So with 27 days to go before the elections, we’re confident our steady numbers and strong local organization will carry the day in the end,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said he believed the presidential election was still a “tight race” based on the survey results.
“In the end, I believe that the Filipino voters will not gamble their future and will go for ‘Team daang matuwid’ which propelled the country to economic progress,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Binay camp remains optimistic that the vice president would win the presidency.
“[Binay] will continue to persevere to touch the hearts and minds of the people that his antipoor programs will effectively uplift their lives,” said campaign spokesperson Rico Quicho.
In a statement, Quicho said Binay’s core and volunteer groups were “all fired up” to work for his victory.
On Monday, in the wake of the release of the new preelection survey results, Binay said he knew he would win in May and that the contest would be between him and Roxas because they both have large political machineries. With Christine O. Avendaño
