Nothing fishy in bid to boost Grace campaign

DAVAO CITY—A campaign to boost the presidential bid of Sen. Grace Poe and increase her chance of winning has started but no money is involved contrary to rumors, a source privy to the effort said.

The source, who declined to be identified, said it was normal as Davao del Sur Gov. Claude Bautista, who is running for governor in the newly created province of Davao Occidental, is a stalwart of the Nationalist People’s Coalition and is closely associated with businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.

Cojuangco is known to be supporting the candidacy of Poe.

“To be fair, there was no money involved and it is not true that barangay captains were promised P500,000 each if they can deliver zero votes to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte,” the source said.

Poe’s running mate, independent vice presidential candidate Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, said he believed that the stage had been set for a minority President and Vice President judging from the results of the latest popularity surveys.

“The truth is it is too hard to know who will win in these (presidential and vice presidential) races,” Escudero said in Isabela province on Tuesday.

Escudero and Poe were in Isabela for speaking tours in Santiago City, Isabela State University-Main Campus in Echague town and the University of La Salette in Santiago City.

Speaking at a news conference, Escudero likened the campaign’s last days to “more than the last two minutes” of a basketball game.

He said the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. was lagging behind then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the surveys during the 2004 elections, but Poe received more votes had “magic [not] robbed him of his victory.”

In 2010, Mar Roxas was leading in surveys for Vice President but he was defeated by Vice President Jejomar Binay, the senator said.

In Davao del Sur province, reports circulated that the Liberal Party (LP) has been offering huge sums, at least P1 million, to village chairs in a bid to overcome Duterte’s popularity.

But an LP stalwart in the province laughed it off, saying it would require billions of pesos just for the country’s more than 42,000 village chairs if this was true.

“That’s absurd,” the LP stalwart said.

Duterte said he was unperturbed by the seeming tactical alliance by his rivals to bring him down.

“I am not scared and I shouldn’t be scared,” Duterte told reporters at the sidelines of the birthday celebration of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, one of Duterte’s most ardent supporters.

Leoncio Evasco Jr., Duterte’s national campaign manager, said the Duterte camp had expected such alliance to materialize “because they are desperate.” Reports from Inquirer Mindanao, with Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon