‘… will there be an effort to bring together at the last two minutes the non-Marcos campaigns of Isko, Ping and Manny so they could rally behind VP Leni?’
THIS is was what Cong Rodante Marcoleta told the crowd at the covered sports stadium in Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo, when he delivered his message as candidate for senator.
He was referring to the crowds that he says have been welcoming the UniTeam in its sorties, from Vigan of the solid North to Iloilo of the once solid yellow. Of course, he was quick to add that this was only insofar as the candidates for President and Vice President were concerned; thus he still appealed to the crowd not to forget him and the rest of the 12-man UniTeam senatorial slate.
While Marcoleta was referring to crowds he had been seeing, he could also have been referring to survey results from such respected outfits as the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia: their commissioned surveys — whose results are somehow made public consistently — show that the UniTeam tandem of Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Sara Duterte leads the rest of the pack.
Depending on the survey firm, the numbers for the UniTeam tandem range from a low of 40% to a high of 60%. In a one-on-one race, those numbers are formidable. But in a race where four or five are strong vote-getters, those numbers can be omen of a landslide win.
In 2016 close to the last two minutes, there was an attempt by the Aquino-backed ticket of Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo to convince the ticket of Grace Poe and Chiz Escudero to back out in their favor. The Yellows – the color at that time – figured that if Grace and Chiz backed out, their votes would go to the Mar-Leni tandem, enough to stop the Duterte-Marcos steamroller.
The attempt fizzled out; Mar and Grace split 18 million votes and so Duterte won with 16 million under his belt.
For the vice presidency, it was a different story of sorts. Mar’s running mate Leni was able to edge out Marcos Jr. who also had to split some of the Duterte votes with Duterte’s official running mate, Alan Cayetano.
2022 represents a rematch for Robredo and Marcos Jr., with Marcos Jr again with the upper hand numbers wise. The question is, will there be an effort to bring together at the last two minutes the non- Marcos campaigns of Isko, Ping and Manny so they could rally behind VP Leni?
Will they?
Or is Marcoleta right?
