THERE’S a lot of money to be made in impugning a political candidate during an election and that is why presidential candidate Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago prefers to use social media to get the truth across.
There are people amassing great amounts of money in so-called “black operations” so “we can expect that all of us will be maligned. So it is important to use the social media to see the truth,” said Santiago.
The senator reputedly has the largest social media following among the presidential bets—some 3.3 million on Facebook and 2.2 million on Twitter—and constantly emphasizes social media’s growing influence in the electoral process with an estimated 40 million Filipinos using the Internet.
The senator was named “President of Campuses” after she won by an overwhelming majority in a survey at the University of Santo Tomas, the third student poll she has won since Certificates of Candidacy were filed.
A statement released by her office on Sunday stressed Santiago has cemented her position as the president of choice in Philippine campuses, and called her “President of Campuses.”
“Clearly, students know that the presidency is no place for the weak-minded, the inexperienced, or the corrupt. It appears that they give weight to my criteria for leaders: academic excellence, professional achievement and sincerity,” Santiago said.
The senator, the only presidential candidate who has yet to release campaign ads, has earlier said she will prioritize campus speeches over traditional campaign sorties, banking on youth support to match the money and machinery of her opponents.
On Monday, Santiago delivered a speech about nationalism and student leadership at a jam-packed covered court of the Rizal Technological University in Pasig.
“Leadership is not about personality…. Leadership is about behavior what have you done?” the senator said.
“Tell the older people in your community and in your household that elections are not an exercise in entertainment or in humor. Elections are an exercise of the will the mental will to improve ourselves,” she told students further, to loud applause.
Two out of three, or 66 percent, of the 1,366 respondents in the survey conducted by the UST’s official student publication The Varsitarian, said they will vote for Santiago if elections were held on the day they were polled from Oct. 26 to Dec. 10.
No other candidate won two-digit scores in the survey. Liberal Party bet Mar Roxas got eight percent, Senator Grace Poe five percent, and Vice President Jejomar Binay 3 percent. Some 17 percent of respondents said they were undecided.
The UST survey is the third campus poll conducted and published after candidates have filed their Certificates of Candidacy. The two others were from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Santiago led all three polls.