“What’s with these fact-checkers?”
With the elections barely a month away, Quezon City mayoralty candidate, Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor yesterday projected more support coming into the way of the UniTeam tandem of former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.
This even as no less than Ana Tabunda, Research Director of Pulse Asia said BBM’s 32-point lead over his nearest rival Leni Robredo, based on their latest survey, now appears to be insurmountable.
Defensor said the remaining days of the campaign “would see candidates lagging behind in the recent survey being marginalized as their followers shift their support to the leading aspirants,” which Defensor says is a natural occurrence in every election.
As voting nears and the dominant candidates emerge, people switch to the survey leaders. They will naturally choose the candidates they think will win,” Defensor said in a television interview.
He said such migration of voter support is already evident in Quezon City.
A clear proof of that, Defensor said, is Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte’s handling of her campaign.
According to Defensor, Belmonte has come out with posters professing support for Bongbong Marcos even if has already allied herself with Robredo.
“I don’t mind that because it helps our candidate, but it’s bad for her candidate. Mayor Joy is indulging in too much politics,” said Defensor.
Defensor pointed out that the biggest beneficiaries in the shift in voter preference “will be BBM and Mayor Inday Sara, because of their insurmountable survey lead over their closest opponents.”
“They will gain more voters than the others, since they are the frontrunners,” he stressed.
Defensor said it would be almost impossible for Robredo and Sotto to overcome the 32-percentage-point lead and 36-percent advantage of their respective opponents, with the May 9 polls almost just a month away.
He said there were no other candidates in the country’s recent history who had such a wide margin over their opponents.
Defensor’s position is shared by Tabunda who said that converting the 56 percent of Marcos to votes, would translate to about 36.5 million of the total 65 million registered voters in the country.
Tabunda said this is the first time they have witnessed such a huge lead going into the mast weeks of the campaign, adding that BBM stands to land as first ever presidential candidate who has a majority voter preference as she noted this is the first in history that a presidential candidate has been able to maintain his 50-plus percentage voter preference throughout the duration of the presidential race.
Tabunda also downplayed BBM’s four-percent dip saying he still continues to dominate with an almost insurmountable lead that even the slight dip in his latest survey number has hardly made a dent.
“It’s not that significant,” Tabunda says of the four percent decline.
And with about 10-12 percent of the voting population who are still undecided, this writer goes with Defensor’s projection as these so-called undecided voters will likely be going for the frontrunner. Llamadista, ‘ika nga.**
What’s with these fact-checkers?
About a couple of weeks ago, I shared a video on Facebook of Robredo claiming how overwhelmed with the turnout of supporters in her rallies whom she said were not “hakot” or ferried.
However, the video also included a clipping of an almost kilometer-long line of buses bearing her campaign materials on the side disproving her statement.
But yesterday, I received a warning from the Facebook fact-checkers saying my post was missing some context. What context was missing. There was a video of Leni’s claim compared to a video showing otherwise. So tell me, what was missing?
If there was someone who has to be fact-checked, it should be Robredo and her handlers. Claiming there is no hakot crowd when evidence reveals the contrary. Claiming there were 70,000 people who attended her Pasig Rally and another hundred thousand people attending her Bacolod or Iloilo sortie I think when those venues could hardly accommodate even half of their claim.
Yesterday, another photo of their rally in Tagum in Davao del Norte went viral in the social media wherein they claim they attracted 32,000 attendees when the photos themselves show only about 2,000 more or less attending their event.
Why not train your guns on the Pinklaws, dear fact-checkers?
