THE ruling Liberal Party admitted on Tuesday the need to work harder on raising the survey rankings of its presidential bet Manuel Roxas II and his running mate Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo even if an internal survey showed that Robredo had already slipped up to third position.
“We have an internal survey which has [Robredo] jumping to third place, but we decided not to release this as it would be self-serving,” said Robredo’s campaign manager Senator Bam Aquino.
“What we find is that Leni’s conversion is high. It’s her awareness, being a latecomer to the VP race, that needs to be worked on more. We’re doing double time with ads and volunteer organizing now to address this,” Aquino said.
Robredo’s LP party mates are confident they would be able to pull her numbers in no time.
“From the start, we’ve been confident that all that Congresswoman Leni needs is to be introduced to a bigger audience, a bigger constituency,” said Akbayan Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez, spokesman of the Roxas-Robredo campaign.
“The modest improvement in her survey numbers is a good start, and we expect that her ranking will improve steadily in the coming weeks up until election day,” Gutierrez added.
As for Roxas, Gutierrez said the party was not too concerned Roxas slipped to third place at 21 percent from his previous 20 percent in September in the latest Pulse Asia preferential polls conducted from Oct. 18 to 29.
In that survey, Roxas came in behind presidential frontrunner Senator Grace Poe with 39 percent, followed by Vice President Jejomar Binay with 24 percent. Senator Miriam Santiago meanwhile placed fourth with 11 percent.
“We started at four percent eight months ago, so this is not really a concern,” Gutierrez said.
“Ultimately, the only numbers that matter are the ones we get on election day. With hard work and genuine effort to reach out to our fellow Filipinos, we are confident we will be on top when it matters,” Gutierrez added.
“This [Pulse Asia] survey should also remind us that while we are currently statistically tied at second place [with Binay], there is a lot more work that needs to be done,” LP spokesperson and Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo told The Standard in a text message.
“Particularly, we need to exert more effort in bringing the message to the people, the message of Daang Matuwid [straight path] and that it needs to be continued,” Quimbo said.
“[Roxas] has quintupled his ratings [from 4 percent]. More importantly, he continues to peak as the days progress,” Quimbo added.