Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV is optimistic that the massive turnout of volunteers and supporters in the recent campaign rallies for Vice President Leni Robredo will help her win the presidential race.
Trillanes, who is seeking a fresh term in the Senate under Robredo's slate, said he believes that the Vice President is on the right track in her campaign.
"Base sa aming survey (Based on our surveys), at the provincial and regional levels, lahat nung pinuntahan niya tumaas siya (her ratings increased in all of the places she visited)," Trillanes said referring to Robredo.
"Napakasipag ni VP Leni, talagang ngayon, pinupuntahan na n'ya lahat so makakahabol at makakahabol ito (VP Leni is very hardworking. She has been campaigning in many areas that's why she can really catch up)," he noted during an interview over DZRH.
Meanwhile, Trillanes said they are seeing a similar pattern in the current pre-election survey to the 2016 presidential campaign where President Duterte was not the early frontrunner.
According to Trillanes, Duterte's volunteers were also passionate and enthusiastic which eventually reflected on the surveys just a couple of months before the May 2016 polls.
"Ganoon din ang nararamdaman natin ngayon. It's a pattern. Slow burn 'yan kumbaga pero biglang sisirit yan pataas (That is what we are feeling now. It is a pattern. It is a slow burn then it will suddenly surge)," he noted.
Robredo's camp earlier shrugged off the recent Pulse Asia survey that ranked the Vice President a far second to survey frontrunner former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., saying that the ranking is not yet indicative of the momentum on the ground.
The Vice President noted that the survey was done almost a month ago, from Feb. 18 to 23, when the official campaign period had just started.
However, she said they are still taking the survey “seriously” though she is “unbothered” by the low number.
Robredo's recently concluded campaign rallies were attended by tens of thousands of supporters—the biggest of which was the one in Bacolod with 86,000 kakampinks, followed by the Cavite rally that drew a crowd of 47,000.