Leni on Bongbong: Let’s not be deceived again

Vice Presidential bets Senator Bongbong Marcos (left) and Camarines Sur representative Leni Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

HURT by her rival’s innuendo that her surge in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey could be the mark of cheating, Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo called out Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on his “deception.”

“Calling us cheaters is an insult to everyone who has been helping us and trusting us,” the Camarines Sur congresswoman said in a statement Tuesday.

“Now that we’re at No. 1, all sorts of brickbats are being thrown at us by our rivals,” she said.

For the first time, Robredo rose to the top of the leaderboard in the SWS-BusinessWorld survey conducted on April 18-20, though by a small margin. She was statistically tied with Marcos for first place with 26 percent of the vote to her rival’s 25 percent.

But in another survey released Tuesday by Pulse Asia, Robredo trailed Marcos by five points with 24 percent voter support to the senator’s 29 percent.

“I’m sure their strategy is not limited to only black propaganda against us, but also empty promises and flattery to the voters in the next few days,” Robredo said.

She said Marcos could even resort to an apology for the abuses incurred by her family’s regime during martial law.

“They may even ask for an apology and promise to return the stolen wealth of the Marcoses to gain votes,” said the widow of former Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

“They have deceived us before; let’s not be deceived again,” she said.

In a statement on Monday, Marcos said he didn’t believe that Robredo has overtaken him in the latest SWS survey.

“We are quite surprised by the new survey because all other surveys show otherwise. I hope this is not a pattern for cheating,” he said.

Marcos told a news conference in Tacloban City on Monday night that he was shown a result of a survey purportedly by the SWS and commissioned by someone he refused to identify which put him ahead of Robredo by five points.

For her record as a human rights lawyer and development worker, Robredo has won the endorsement of more than 200 alternative lawyers, legal advocates, paralegals and human rights defenders.

The group led by human rights lawyer and election reform advocate Christian Monsod  expressed its support for Robredo in the May elections.