Binay ‘is coming,’ despite lost lead, says his camp
United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) presidential bet Vice President Jejomar C. Binay during his campaign sortie in San Fernando, La Union.
HANDOUT PHOTO
The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay on Thursday expressed confidence that despite slipping in the voters’ preference polls, the opposition standard-bearer will emerge the winner on May 9 national elections.
In a statement, Binay’s spokesperson Atty. Rico Quicho said the surveys do not reflect the support their presidential candidate has been getting on the ground, and maintained that it will be a tight election day.
He said the ground campaigning intensified after April 29 or the last day of the surveys, which may be the reason why the latest Pulse Asia survey did not capture the support for Binay, who only placed fourth in the opinion poll conducted from April 26 to 29.
“It will be a tight race all the way to election day. The surveys do not capture the intense ground campaigning by the Vice President’s core supporters and parallel groups nationwide. These efforts have intensified after April 29 which was the last day of the surveys. The final visibility push this week via motorcades, house to house campaign and sectoral events. like the Indigenous People’s summit for Binay in Cagayan de Oro last Tuesday, show the winning path for the Vice President,” Quicho said.
According to the latest Pulse Asia survey, Binay only placed fourth with 17 percent, down one percent from the previous survey conducted from April 19 to 24.
READ: Duterte maintains lead in latest Pulse Asia poll; Robredo surges
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte retained his lead at 33 percent among 4,000 respondents, followed by administration candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and erstwhile frontrunner Sen. Grace Poe, who are in a statistical tie at 22 percent and 21 percent, respectively.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago got two percent.
The said survey has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 1.5 percentage points. Four percent remain undecided.
Binay led in the surveys until the corruption allegations caught up with him when the Office of the Ombudsman indicted him for malversation, graft and falsification of public documents over the alleged rigging of the Makati car park building when he was still city mayor.
On Wednesday, Binay said he has lost confidence in the surveys.
READ: Failing to regain lead, Binay loses trust in surveys
Quicho said said even four days until election day and with two days left of the campaign, Binay continues to have the determination “that energizes our ground troops who are pounding the streets and knocking on doors as we speak.”
He said Binay’s victory will be similar to his vice presidential win in 2010, when he gained momentum in the surveys to surpass his political nemesis Roxas just before election day.
“History will indeed repeat itself. This election will be won on the ground on election day. Let us all vote early with your family and friends,” Quicho said.
“To the other candidates: Do not celebrate yet, good things are about to happen, Binay is coming,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the final Standard poll conducted from April 27 to May 1, Binay also shed some points at 15 percent, down from 18 percent in the March 26 to April 1 survey and from 23 percent in the February 24 to March 1 poll.
Duterte remained the frontrunner in the said survey at 32 percent, followed by Poe with 25 percent and Roxas with 22 percent. Santiago placed last with two percent.
READ: Duterte ahead by 7 in final Standard survey
Four percent were undecided. The survey has 3,000 voting-age respondents and a margin of error of plus-or-minus 1.8 percent. RAM/rga
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