Roxas confident he’ll be ‘flavor of the month’ in May

Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas need not change his campaign strategy as he is confident that he will be the “flavor of the month” in May.

Roxas on Friday offered an analogy to describe the pattern of the preference of voters based on election surveys conducted several times in a month.

“Kung titignan natin, maganda ang trending. Pebrero: sino ‘yung flavor of the month? Binay. Tapos bawat flavor of the month, kinikilatis, tinitignan, tinitimbang. Marso, iba na flavor of the month, Grace na. Kinilatis, tinimbang. Abril, iba na flavor of the month. Duterte. Kinikilatis ngayon, tinitimbang. Itong kanyang mga pananalita na ampaw, na walang laman, na pabago-bago. Mayo, sino flavor of the month? Kaya maganda ang trending natin. Okay?” Roxas said, drawing laughter from the reporters.

(If we take a look at it, the trends are favorable. In February, who was the flavor of the month? (Vice President Jejomar) Binay. Every flavor of the month has been weighed, scrutinized and measured. In March, it was (Senator) Grace (Poe) who was the flavor of the month. She was scrutinized and measured. In April, it was (Davao City Mayor Rodrigo) Duterte. He is now being measured and scrutinized—his statements which are nonsense and inconsistent. In May, who will be the flavor of the month? That’s why the trending favors us. Okay?)

Despite consistently lagging behind rivals in surveys, Roxas sees no reason to tweak his campaign strategy to convince more people to vote for him as the next leader of the country.

READ: Roxas camp covets steady rise, not instant surges

“We’re doing okay. Nakikita naman po ninyo, nagbabago-bago kung sino ‘yung nangunguna. Ibig sabihin soft ‘yung support. May segment na soft ang support. ‘Yung atin, stable and solid, hindi nababawasan. So ako po ay tiwala na sa dulo, mananaig po ang maayos. Mananaig po ang tama,” he said in an ambush interview after his dialogue with farmers and fisher folks at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.

(We’re doing okay. You can see that there is no consistent leader. It only means that there is soft support (for the leaders). There is a segment throwing soft support. The support for me is stable and solid—it is not waning. So I believe that in the end, the decent one will prevail. The right one will prevail.)

Presidential bet Mar Roxas is unperturbed by his standing in surveys. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net

READ: Drilon admits Roxas’ standing in surveys a ‘concern’

The former Interior Secretary is running under the dominant party backed by the administration. But despite the supposed well-oiled machinery of the LP, it doesn’t seem to help in improving the numbers of Roxas.

But Roxas stressed that political machinery does not necessarily translate to bloc votes.

“The machinery does not translate to command votes. Wala ng command votes sa Pilipinas ngayon (There are no more command votes in the Philippines), with Internet, with media, with information,” he said.

Despite the lack of the so-called command votes, the former Interior Secretary said more people are believing in “Daang Matuwid” (straight path) because they are seeing its successes through their local leaders’ way of governance.

Roxas’ campaign is anchored on the gains of the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, who initiated the Daang Matuwid reform agenda.

Although admitting that the current administration was not perfect, Roxas promises to continue and expand programs under the “Daang Matuwid.” IDL