Record crowd expected in ‘miting de avance’
BY WENDELL VIGILIA and ASHZEL HACHERO
THE camp of opposition presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo and running mate Sen. Francis Pangilinan expects at least half a million people to attend her team’s “miting de avance” on Saturday in Makati City.
Robredo’s spokesman Ibarra Gutierrez said their camp believes the number of participants in the grand rally on Ayala Avenue corner Makati Avenue will exceed the number of attendees in her grand birthday-rally in Pasay City last April 23, which drew more than 400,000 people.
“We expect that this will be more. Conservatively, I think the campaign is banking on at least half a million although some are saying we can easily hit a million attendees to the Saturday miting de avance in NCR,” he told ANC.
The streets of Makati City were the usual rally sites of the anti-Arroyo movement in 2008 and 2009, when members of the Liberal Party led by then opposition Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino broke away from their alliance with the administration over allegations of massive graft and corruption and cheating in the 2004 national elections.
Aquino was elected president in 2010. He passed away last year.
Robredo asked her “Kakampink” supporters and volunteers to join her in the event which will start at 5 p.m.
“Magsama-sama muli tayo sa mga gabing puno ng pagmamahal at pag-asa (Let’s join together once again on a night full of love and hope),” the Vice President posted on Facebook.
Another miting de avance in Robredo’s hometown, Naga City, is scheduled this Friday while grand rallies have been set in Sorsogon City and in Legazpi City, Albay on the same day.
On Wednesday night, the Vice President rallied her supporters in Western Visayas for one final push, visiting Northwestern Visayas College in Kalibo, Aklan in the morning and attending another grand rally in the evening in Iloilo City where she was accompanied by supporter Mayor Jerry Treñas.
Robredo also met with leaders from various sectors in Negros Occidental at the Convention Hall of the Acacia Hotel in Bacolod City and greeted some 8,000 supporters at a park in Bago City.
‘NO LOVE LOST’
Gutierrez said the Iglesia ni Cristo’s (INC) endorsement of the tandem of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte-Carpio, which was officially announced on Tuesday, is irrelevant to the Vice President’s campaign because “we were really not banking on an endorsement from the INC.”
“The reason is really the historical experience, they went for (former Sen. Ferdinand) Bongbong Marcos (Jr.) in 2016 so we expected that in all likelihood they would go for the same candidate this election and that’s precisely what happened,” he told ANC.
In 2016, the INC endorsed the presidential bid of then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Duterte-Carpio’s father, and Marcos’ vice presidential bid.
Gutierrez said their camp is not “overly concerned” with the endorsement since Robredo was able to defeat Marcos in the 2016 vice presidential race even without the religious group’s support.
“We expected this and in 2016, despite the endorsement of our rival candidate, VP Leni was able to pull off a big turn so it’s something we expected but it’s not something we’re overly concerned with,” he said.
Gutierrez, however, said their camp still respects the INC’s decision to endorse the son of the late dictator and the presidential daughter because “it is always the choice of any group – religious or not – to support a particular candidate.”
The INC, which reportedly has command over the votes of between 1.5 million to 2 million members, formally made the endorsement in an announcement made through its media Network Net 25 last Tuesday night, just several days ahead of the election day on May 9.
The INC also endorsed the senatorial candidacies of Jejomar Binay, Alan Peter Cayetano, JV Ejercito, Guillermo Eleazar, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Sherwin Gatchalian, Loren Legarda, Robin Padilla, Joel Villanueva, Mark Villar, and Juan Miguel Zubiri.
CLERGY ENDORSEMENT
A day after the INC’s endorsement of the Bongbong-Sara tandem, the Clergy for the Moral Choice (CMC) which is composed of more at least 1,200 priests, bishops and deacons, endorsed Robredo-Pangilinan tandem, reminding their flock to choose “true servant-leaders.”
The CMC told a press conference they were speaking to remind the public “gently yet firmly of their sacred duty to vote and to vote only for the right leaders of this our beloved country, the Philippines, to choose and to elect true servant-leaders whose hearts are really after the heart of the Good Shepherd — just like Leni and Kiko.”
Among the members of the group is Bishop Antonio Tobias of the Diocese of Novaliches who said he Church does not really prohibit the clergy from supporting particular candidates based on their individual capacity.
Unlike the INC which orders members to vote for its leaders’ chosen candidates, the Catholic Church only persuades and guides its flock in choosing the best leaders for the country.
“Hindi naman pinagbabawal talaga ng batas ng Simbahan. Ang pinagbabawal lang na kami ay tumayo at magpaboto (Church law does not prohibit that. What it prohibits is for us to run for office, ourselves),” Tobias said.
The CMC, however, said while it is not openly endorsing Robredo and Pangilinan, its members will not use the pulpit to campaign for them when they celebrate the Holy Mass.
Activist-priest Robert Reyes said the Church has a job to do and that is to stop “evil” from prevailing.
The group said they can no longer stay neutral or apolitical amid the “fake, deceptive and manipulative claims” that aim to revise the country’s history, especially in depicting and conditioning the minds and consciousness of our people regarding the martial law years as the golden age in its history.
The Robredo camp said various political groups in Mindanao supporting either Marcos or Moreno switched to Robredo.
The groups include Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM), First Community Cooperatives Foundation, Mindanao Women Advocacy, and I M K Leni para sa Bayan.
VERITAS SURVEY
Robredo topped a survey conducted by the Catholic Church-run Radio Veritas, with 48 percent while Marcos Jr. got 38 percent.
The survey conducted from April 1 to 30 has 2,400 respondents, and has a ±3 percent error margin.
Radio Veritas CEO and president Fr. Anton Pascual said the respondents were asked through a text-based and online gathering data process from a database of previous face-to-face, on ground interviews the question, “If the elections were held today, who would you vote for based on your Catholic values and beliefs?”
“For the Catholic voters who served as respondents for this survey, this survey tells us that based on Catholic values and beliefs, Vice President Robredo has a significant advantage over former senator Marcos Jr. and that Catholic voters are inclined to vote for her,” Pascual said.
In the survey, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso are tied at third place with 5 percent, while Sen. Manny Pacquiao got 2 percent. Norberto Gonzales and Leody de Guzman each got 1 percent.
Pascual said the result of the survey is an affirmation that for most Catholic voters, “servant-leader qualities are the basis of choice for these are deeply rooted in a Catholic’s values and beliefs.”
“While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the top of the pyramid, servant leadership is different,” Pascual added.
He explained that a servant-leader shares power and puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.
In a related development, Clifford Sorita, head of the Veritas Truth Survey, said Marcos Jr. has a “slight age” over Robredo at 45 percent against 43 percent for voters aged 40-60 years old.
However, Sorita said, Robredo has more voters in her favor among those aged 18 to 20 years, at 42 percent as against the 37 percent of Marcos Jr.
“For ages 21 to 39, Vice President Robredo got 51 percent versus 35 percent of former senator Marcos and 77 percent versus 32 percent for the 61 years old and above,” Sorita added.
Marcos has consistently topped surveys conducted by major pollsters like the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia, and Robredo in second place.
In the latest Pulse Asia survey, Marcos Jr. got 56 percent to Robredo’s 23 percent.
