MEDIUM RARE
As senior citizens’ champion Romy Macalintal puts it, why are those survey results coming out so early in the game? Early, Attorney, with the filing of certificates of candidacy now in full swing?
What I find audacious is not the timing but the unexpected scores – how dare BBM, son of an ex-president, landing at the top in a statistical tie with Sara, daughter of an incumbent president. BBM, condemned by the left and the right and righteous, by the highly educated (e.g., from UP, AdM), by victims of Martial Law and historians whose mission is to remember, record, repeat. Were nonpartisan consumer research groups and analysts alone in not forgetting that a significant segment of the population born after the ‘70s have opinions of their own?
How dare BBM to defend blogger Toni Gonzaga for asking him harmless questions about growing up in Malacañang and not his inherited sins, when she could have, should have clawed him for being his father’s son, all the while media on all fronts assiduously, zealously marked the 49th year of Martial Law on Sept. 21.
In both pre-2022 election surveys, conducted separately and independently by Pulse Asia and PinaSurvey of DigiVoice, BBM shared the top spot with Sara and Isko. Pulse Asia: Sara 20 %; BBM 15; Isko 13. DigiVoice: Isko 24.7; BBM 24; Sara 22. A third group, Manila Broadcasting Co., gave Sara 25.4 and BBM 17.7.
BBM, who lost by 200,000 votes to Leni Robredo in the VP race in 2016, lost a second time when his election protest was thrown out by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal four years later. Pray tell, where were Leni’s voters when the surveys were conducted -- Pulse Asia Sept. 6-11 with 2,400 respondents; DigiVoice Sept. 9-13 with a base of 1,000. MBC claimed 7,500 face-to-face interviews July 24-31.
Interestingly, DigiVoice polled negative votes for “the two top candidates who will not be voted as president” -- the “winners” being VP Robredo, 22.7, and Senator Pacquiao, 18.3. “Losers” Isko drew 1.6, BBM 6.9, Sara 10.6.
Between now and May 2022, things are bound to change. If Sara drops out to make room for only one Duterte in the races, will that be the signal for a BBM-DU30 teamup? Audaciously!