MINUTE BY AGONIZING MINUTES, The “Gunfight at OK Corral” is nearing.
No matter what others say, it has come to a one-on-one duel between gunslingers Vice President Leni Robredo and former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
There are surveys and there are surveys. Each claiming victory. No one is now sure with certainty.
Lately, they have been competing in rally numbers with Leni having the clear edge. Marcos has the majority of the local officials officially declaring o be on his side- but there have been defections to Robredo’s camp, as well.
The year 2022 polls will determine whether politicians or volunteers will win a national mandate. Marcos has the money and logistics, Leni has the volunteers who donated cash, time and talent for free and advance a campaign that has not been seen yet in the annals of Philippine elections.
The late Danding Cojuuangco is right that “all politics is local”- yes, the local politicians or the local volunteers. Marcos is perceived to be ahead so the last 20 days of the Leni campaign have seen volunteers crawling on the ground- talking and wooing house to house, face to face, and mostly the people in the DE social strata who have been either bereft of true facts or misled by false propaganda.
The social media fight has been vicious and degrading with the Leni Crew fighting back with the same instruments that Marcos’ camp has inflicted on their candidate. It will be a battle of credibility and attrition.
On the eve of her birthday, Friday, Leni asked her followers not to do a “tooth for a tooth and eye and eye” campaigning where thrash is thrown back to senders. She wants to elevate her level of a campaign to a higher level. Marcos says the same.
But it is their followers who cannot contain the emotional explosion that is happening in their psyches.
Third-runner Manila Mayor Isko Moreno virtually self-destructed when he called a Manila Peninsula conference on Easter Sunday and asked No 2 runner Robredo to quit the race. None of those invited including senator Ping Lacson, senator Tito Sotto and Norberto Gonzales and even Isko’s own running mate Dr. Willie Ong expected Isko’s shocker.
They all dumped Moreno in the garbage hump and it seems Moreno’s candidacy was doomed from there.
Even senator Manny Pacquiao who was also invited was thankful for “divine providence” that circumstances prevented him from being a part of a propaganda “fiasco” that blew in Moreno’s face. The shift seems to be in Leni’s favor.
Former Speaker Bebot Alvarez’group, Lacson’s main party, resigned and join Leni and so did the national volunteer pro-Isko Group led by Tim Orbos now wears the color pink.
But it is definitely a race against time. Whether 16 days are enough to reduce the “survey lead” of Marcos into a beatable figure by May 9. The Pulse Asia survey had Marcos slipping by 6% and Robredo gaining 9 percent as of March 15. Another UP-based survey group of Dr. Dante Velasco has Leni already at 32% as of April 1 and peaking.
In the final analysis, it is the man who the voters ACTUALLY pick on election day who will win. Not the one who was voted in the past surveys nor those who attended the massive rallies. Don’t bet on your horses, yet- it’s not over – till the Fat Lady sings, the fat lady getting fatter every election year.
For comments: email to dejarescobingo@yahoo.com or bohol-rd@mozcom.com