Shift of alliances in Visayas seen to add backers for Grace

SEN. GRACE Poe enjoying her campaign with children in a sortie in Iloilo City. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

BACOLOD CITY—The Visayas, considered as a stronghold of administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas, may be slowly slipping away from Roxas’ grasp, according to his allies and party mates who are now supporting one of the leading presidential candidates, Sen. Grace Poe.

Results of the latest popularity survey by Pulse Asia, commissioned by broadcast network ABS-CBN, showed that Roxas’ rating in the Visayas dropped by 7 percentage points from 34 percent in the April 12-17 survey to 27 percent in the April 16-20 survey.

The support that Roxas lost, according to erstwhile Roxas ally Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez, may have gone to Poe or Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Benitez, former Liberal Party provincial chair who now supports Poe, says the Pulse Asia survey breakdown shows that Roxas’ rating has dropped in Cebuano-speaking areas of the Visayas and dipped slightly in Negros Occidental.

“It makes sense because Duterte’s surge is coming from Mindanao,” says Benitez.

“The natural trading partner of Mindanao is Cebu so [Cebuanos] are the first to be infected by the surge…  after Cebu, Bohol, then Negros Oriental,” he says.

Bohol, Negros Oriental and Cebu are Cebuano-speaking provinces.

Those who speak Hiligaynon on Panay Island and Negros Occidental go for Poe, he says.

Benitez says the increase in Poe’s support in Negros Occidental is probably because people are starting to look at the winning chances of candidates.

“I think [Roxas’] decline is really [because of] the perception of his ’winnability’…  I will not say [anything] anymore,” he says.

Roxas’ mother, Judy Araneta-Roxas, is a member of the landed Araneta clan in Negros Occidental. Poe’s adoptive mother, actress Susan Roces, is from the capital city of

Bacolod.

LP leaders and allies of Roxas have belittled the results of the survey and expressed confidence that party machinery will work in favor of their candidate.

Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon says at least 70,000 people attended the rallies on Tuesday of Roxas in the cities of Kabankalan, La Carlota, Cadiz and Bacolod.

He says the number of votes for Roxas in Negros Occidental alone will exceed 706,897, which the former interior secretary got in 2010 in his losing vice presidential bid.

Capiz Rep. Antonio del Rosario, a close ally of Roxas and candidate for Capiz governor, says an internal survey of LP in Capiz shows Roxas with a voter preference of 70 percent followed by Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay, who are tied at 9 percent, and Duterte with 4 percent.

But allies of Binay in Antique have jumped ship and support Poe although the opposition bloc,  National Unity Party in Antique province, led by Vice Gov. Rhodora Cadiao, has declared support for Roxas and Robredo.

Iloilo Rep. Jerry Treñas, head of the LP Western Visayas council, says Duterte’s controversial comment on the 1989 rape and killing of an Australian missionary and the last presidential debate have not been reflected in results of the survey.

“LP is working double time to deliver the votes,” Treñas says.