‘If the locals are planting their flags on the Robredo side despite the gap in the surveys, then something must be shifting.’
WITH the official campaign period for local officials kicking off, the ground war for the national elections — for the presidency, in specifics — is heating up an already volatile race.
It’s true that the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos is still leading the horse race in the surveys, but more than a few developments in the landscape makes one stop and think.
First, Sen. Ping Lacson resigning from Partido Reporma. Bebot Alvarez, former speaker of the House of Representatives, announced the shift of support of the party to VP Leni Robredo. It seems that there was a misunderstanding of expectations when it came to financing expenses for poll watchers, which politicians like Alvarez expected the party’s standard bearer to cough up. Sen. Lacson, in his trademark straightforward fashion, upended the expectation and made it clear that no such promises were made, and promptly left. The good senator made it clear that he was leaving the party but would continue his run as an independent candidate.
To a certain degree, Alvarez’s shift to VP Robredo adds more firepower for the latter in the Davao region, if Alvarez and his allies hold true to his word. In the end, that is what matters in these uncomfortable alliances — promises are kept, and bonds held. In any case, there was no space for Alvarez in the Marcos camp, given his very public clash with the vice-presidential candidate when she flexed her muscle to install former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as speaker, effectively ousting Alvarez.
Second, National Unity Party goes for Marcos. Or did it? Last week, the Enrique Razon-backed NUP announced its support for Bongbong Marcos, something that must have stuck in the craw of the campaign strategists of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso. Buzz had it that Razon was an early supporter of Moreno due to the latter’s accomplishments in Manila, but the NUP endorsement of another is largely seen as a pivot away from Moreno, who is unmoving at third place.
Shortly after the NUP announcement, party president and Cavite Rep. Elpidio “Pidi” Barzaga and his wife, Dasmariñas Mayor Jenny Barzaga, pledged their support to VP Robredo, effectively veering away from the party stand. It seems NUP is not so solid on the endorsement of Marcos, and word has it that many other members are for VP Robredo.
I like to watch movements on the local front as local officials have, more often than not, more finely-tuned ears when it comes to shifting voter preferences on the ground. It is true that endorsements draw plenty from past relationships and skirmishes, of granted favors and perceived slights; your quintessential local politician, if caught between a rock and a hard place, will open doors to every national candidate wanting to come through on their home turf. Rather than antagonize anybody, they will just welcome everybody — but that’s conventional thinking. Right now, with all these endorsements for VP Robredo coming from local politicians, there seems to be an undercurrent that no one can quite figure out yet. If the locals are planting their flags on the Robredo side despite the gap in the surveys, then something must be shifting.
The question remains whether that shift will be enough to propel VP Robredo’s candidacy to the finish line. The Robredo volunteers have been tireless on the ground and on social media — house to house efforts are being done in the hope that there is sufficient time to catch up and convert.
Again, much remains to be seen, and we can only keep watch to try and divine where these developments will take us. With 41 days left, we can expect harder pushing on all fronts, from all sides, to emerge as victor come May 9.
