Taking the lead on Facebook engagement among presidential aspirants is a "good sign" coming into the May 9 elections, Vice President Leni Robredo said.
"Coming into the elections, magandang pangitain ito (this is a good sign), Robredo said on Wednesday, March 8.
Robredo surpassed her rival Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. this month in terms of Facebook engagement score.
According to the latest computation of 58 million data points from Facebook, Robredo now leads Marcos by five points in March, with a total of 8 million engagements over her rival’s 7.5 million.
READ MORE: Robredo leads in presidential race based on Facebook analytics
The Vice President explained that online engagement also translates to the support she is getting on the ground, saying that "any where we go, even here in Mindanao, we feel the perseverance and support of the volunteers."
She also said that the development is "very encouraging" and fuels the rest of her campaign stretch.
"Siyempre (Of course), very thankful. Very thankful kasi alam natin na ito talaga (because we know this is really) organic. Ito nanggaling talaga sa maraming supporters na tumutulong, nagpapakita rin ng pagdagdag interes sa laban natin (This came from our supporters who have been helping us and it shows added interest in our fight). Very encouraging siya. Very encouraging coming from talagang walang wala (nothing)," Robredo said.
The presidential aspirant attributes the engagement score improvement to the "awareness of volunteers and supporters" on her advocacies and to the campaign sorties that enable more people to see her up close.
"Yung engagement sa social media gustong sabihin na kahit ang daming mga bayaran, natatalo ito ng mga organic na mga supporters na handang makipaglaban for us (The engagement on social media shows that despite the amount of paid individuals, these are defeated by organic supporters who are ready to fight for us)," she said.
Robredo further said that the development "greatly affects" her, especially that in the past five years, she has been on the receiving end of massive disinformation, bashing, and propaganda.
"So the mere fact na nakikita natin ngayon na lumalaban na yung ating mga supporters saka yung laban na 'to organic nga, malaki yung lakas ng loob na binibigay niya sa'tin (that we are seeing our supporters fighting a fight that is organic, it gives a huge boost to us)," she said.
The Vice President believes that the improved social engagement is "very helpful" in the elections as she cited experts calling it a "more real time" measurement of the voters' sentiments.
She added that data analytics give them insights on where to exert more efforts in terms of campaigning.