By Rio N. Araja
CITING the Laylo report and other survey results, UP professor and political analyst Prospero de Vera said Sunday he believes Senator Grace Poe will gain from the decision of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte not to run for President in next year’s elections.
Duterte was a no-show at the Comelec’s main office in Intramuros, Manila, at the end of the five-day filing of certificates of candidacy last Friday for those running for President, vice president and senator.
De Vera made his statement even as AKO Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe on Sunday cautioned the public on a supposed plot by the detractors of Senator Grace Poe to have her excluded in the 2016 presidential elections following the Supreme Court’s disqualification of two mayors from Lanao del Norte and Batanes over the issue of their foreign citizenship.
Batocabe did not identify those behind the plot but said there was an ongoing demolition job to condition the minds of the voters on Poe’s looming disqualification.
“I think there is a systematic PR campaign designed to condition the minds of our people that Poe would be disqualified,” said Batocabe, spokesman of the party-list Coalition Foundation Inc.
Speaking before the members of the Financial Executives of the Philippines and the Center for Philippine Futuristics Studies and Management, De Vera said the Laylo Report showed that in a three-way contest, Poe would pull away with 47 points followed by Binay and Roxas at 26 points each.
He said the internal surveys of other political parties and candidates showed a similar trend.
The survey conducted by Laylo from Sept. 21 to Oct. 1, with 1,500 respondents from 76 provinces in the country and 17 cities in the National Capital Region, showed Poe leading the pack of eight possible candidates including Roxas, Binay, Duterte, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, Senators Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Miriam Santiago and former Senator Richard Gordon.
Poe garnered 32 percent while Roxas placed second at 19 percent followed by Binay (14 percent), Duterte (10 percent), Estrada (9 percent), Marcos (7 percent), Santiago (6 percent) and Gordon (1 percent).
Poe also led the survey across all geographic areas, economic classes, gender and age groups.
By ethnicity, Poe was the top choice among the Tagalogs, (29 percent), Cebuanos (35 percent), Ilonggos (36 percent), Ilocanos (30 percent), Bicolanos (40 percent) and Muslim groups (27 percent). It was only among the Warays that Poe placed second with 19 percent, with Binay taking the lead at 42 percent.
The most recent Ulat sa Bayan survey of Pulse Asia also showed Poe maintaining her lead over the other presidential candidates in the survey of 2,400 respondents conducted on Sept. 8 to 14 with a rating of 26 percent followed by Roxas (20 percent), Binay (19 percent) and Duterte (16 percent).
De Vera, also President of the Association of Political Consultants in Asia, said Poe’s espousal of a clean campaign focused on issues and platforms rather than personal attacks was “connecting her with the voters”. Macon Ramos-Araneta and Rio N. Araja
Earlier, De Vera said Poe had presented the most comprehensive and detailed platform of government of all the presidential candidates.
“Candidates must realize that voters are now taking a closer look at what platforms they are offering,” De Vera said.
“They can see past the mudslinging and are now taking a look at the issues and how these candidates will address them should they be voted into office.” Macon Ramos-Araneta and Rio N. Araja