The opposition is not worried that Vice President Leni Robredo is trailing behind other potential presidential candidates in the latest Pulse Asia survey on the preference of Filipinos for the 2022 elections.
This was according to former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who maintained on Friday, April 30, his doubts about election surveys and his belief that the opposition will win in next year's polls.
Trillanes said the Pulse Asia survey, which listed Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as the most preferred probable candidate for the presidential race, is "not really" a cause for concern for the opposition.
"Because the past two elections have shown that the frontrunners do not really win in the end, and those who eventually won -- in 2010, it was Noynoy Aquino, and in 2016, it was Duterte -- both of them were not even on the surveys at this time of that year," he said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.
He also noted that the survey was conducted in late February, before the fresh surge of coronavirus cases and reimposition of the enhanced community quarantine.
"The results of Pulse Asia ...it is not valid anymore, because those results came in two months before and the intervening two months, so many significant events have already happened that could have affected the results by now," Trillanes stressed.
"So these are just feel-good results for the frontrunners, but also an indicator of the work ahead for those who are behind," he added.
Robredo ranked fifth in the Pulse Asia survey with only seven percent, and was preceeded by Sen. Emmanuel Manny Pacquiao (11 percent), Sen. Grace Poe and Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso (12 percent), and former senator and defeated vice presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (13 percent). Duterte-Carpio got 27 percent.
The 1Sambayan Coalition has been wooing the Vice President to be opposition's standard bearer for the 2022 elections, but her camp previously said that she would focus first on helping address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trillanes said they would wait for Robredo to make her decision, although he admitted that the "pre-campaign period" is already running shorter.
Still, he is confident. With Robredo's number being "basically constant" sans any campaign effort, the former lawmaker said the gap with other candidates can easily be overcome during the official campaign period.
"We have nothing to worry about at this point, but we also have no reason to be complacent, given the results," he said.
"There is so much hope. We are very confident that eventually the opposition will win in 2022," Trillanes claimed.