By Butch Fernandez
From Business Mirror
Link: http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23993:manny-fights-villaroyo-tag-cuts-noynoys-lead-to-8-pts&catid=26:nation&Itemid=63NACIONALISTA Party (NP) standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar bounced back in the end-March Social Weather Stations survey with a 29-percent rating, cutting the lead (from 12 to 8 points) posted by his closest rival, Liberal Party (LP) presidential bet Sen. Benigno Aquino III, in an earlier Pulse Asia survey.
Admitting that his survey ratings were partly affected by the “Villaroyo” tag thrown at him by his opponents, Villar revealed in an interview that he was, in fact, having problems recruiting supporters in the countryside to back the NP campaign because President Arroyo herself had been stopping local leaders from doing so.
“Alam mo, problema ko nga ngayon, mga sumasali sa amin pinipigil ng Pangulo,” Villar said over the weekend. He recalled that since October last year, there were many party recruits who were ready to join the NP campaign “pero tinatawagan ng Pangulo at pinipigil.”
Up to now, he added, the administration Lakas-Kampi-CMD is working on beefing up its ranks, holding party meetings to stop defectors from leaving. “Hanggang ngayon ay nagpapalakas pa ang Lakas at nagpa-meeting at talagang kinukumbinsi lahat na huwag lumipat ng partido.”
This shows, Villar said, that the “Villaroyo” tag and other black propaganda linking him to Arroyo and here husband, Miguel, were all blatant lies spun by his “panicking” political foes. But he added that he expected more of these underhanded tactics to intensify as election day draws near.
“Patuloy ang aming panliligaw sa mga local officials at maraming sumasama sa amin, at syempre marami ring napipigilan ang administrasyon,” he said, even as he insisted that “kalaban namin ang [Arroyo] administrasyon. Nililiwanag namin na oposisyon kami. In fact, hindi pa kami nag-usap ng Pangulo simula na ako ay alisin nila na pangulo ng Senado. Hindi ako humihingi ng pera at wala akong balak na humingi ng pera sa kanila.”
Villar explained that before believing his opponents, voters should realize that he was once Speaker of the House where most of the incumbent congressmen and governors, who were former congressmen as well, were all his allies in the nine years that he served in the House of Representatives.
This developed as the Villar camp on Sunday reported that Villar’s latest SWS rating was above 4 percentage points from the 25-percent rating he registered in the earlier Pulse Asia survey.
The NP said the March 28 to 30 SWS survey commissioned by House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora showed Villar closing the Pulse Asia gap of 12 percentage points to just 8 percentage points in the latest SWS results against Aquino, his nearest rival.
It noted that the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys, conducted between March 21 to 28, were conducted less than a week apart.
The NP asserted that Villar staged “a modest but significant comeback” in the latest SWS survey from his 28- percent in mid-March amid relentless attacks by the camp of LP candidate Aquino, particularly the one linking Villar to President Arroyo.
Tracking his survey ratings since December, the NP noted that Villar practically did not lose support from his voters and even gained 2 percentage points from 27 percent in the December 5 to 10 survey to his latest 29 percent.
Aquino may have retained his frontrunner status by rating 37 percent in the latest SWS survey, after coming perilously close to Villar in the February 10 survey, but he has been losing base support since December last year, the NP added. It also said Aquino was rating 46 percent in the December 5 to 10 survey but never recovered as he lost 9 percentage points to 37 percent in the latest March SWS survey.
The latest SWS poll also showed former President Joseph Estrada falling to 17 percent from the previous 19 percent, or a decline of 2 percentage points.
Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro posted 8 percent from his 6-percent rating during the previous poll.
The latest SWS results have a margin of error of plus-minus 2.2 percent, with the undecided reaching 4 percent, down from 5 percent during the previous survey.
Duterte backs Noynoy
DAVAO CITY—As expected by his constituents, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Friday finally endorsed LP standard-bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III.
Duterte, along with daughter Vice Mayor Sara Duterte, accompanied Aquino and running mate Sen. Manuel Roxas II in a 200-vehicle, 17-kilometer motorcade around the city.
The mayor said his support for Aquino is “consequential” since his mother, Soledad “Nanay Soling” Duterte, was a member of the Yellow Friday Group movement in Davao City during the campaign of then-candidate Corazon Aquino against then-President Ferdinand Marcos.
Then in 1986, former President Corazon Aquino appointed Duterte, who was then a prosecutor, as officer in charge-vice mayor of this city.
Duterte told reporters here that he is confident Aquino will surely be the next President of the country. He said that Aquino has an edge among other presidential candidates in Davao City. “Maybe not a landslide here, but I expect that he could maintain his position [in the surveys].”
Aquino continues to lead the nationwide preelection surveys of the SWS and Pulse Asia.
Thousands of supporters of Duterte’s local party, Hugpong Sa Tawong Lungsod, in yellow T-shirts flooded the major streets as the motorcade kicked off from the Davao International Airport and ended at Freedom Park for a proclamation rally.
During the motorcade, Duterte repeatedly cited his reason for supporting Aquino and Roxas: “They are clean and decent.”
However, the three-hour motorcade caused a traffic jam in the major thoroughfares of the city.
The mayor, holding a microphone, also repeatedly apologized to the motorists and commuters for the traffic jam.
Langit, Lambino urge overseas Filipinos to vote
LAKAS-Kampi-CMD senatorial bets Rey Langit and Raul Lambino on Sunday called on Filipinos abroad to exercise their right to suffrage as the country’s 93 embassies and consulates general around the world started to conduct absentee voting.
They also urged Filipinos with relatives abroad, particularly migrant workers, to encourage them to give time to elect a new set of national leaders.
Langit, whose radio programs for migrant workers including the pioneering To Saudi With Love have reached millions of Filipinos abroad since the 1980s, explained that the overseas Filipinos’ participation in the electoral process is important since the outcome of the May 10 elections would define not only their future but also that of their relatives back home. He said the right to suffrage even while abroad was one of the former issues aired by migrant workers, auguring well for their participation in the coming polls.
“As major contributors to the Philippine economy, they should ensure that their voices are heard in determining the next leaders of our country. They should choose the candidates with the best programs to lead our country and also to promote the welfare and well-being of Filipinos abroad and their relatives,” said Langit.
Northern Alliance set to announce pick
THE Northern Alliance is expected to flex its muscles this week with the announcement of its choice for President.
The Northern Alliance, composed of about 30 Ilocano congressmen from Northern Luzon or elsewhere, will meet in Baguio City during the week to decide the group’s choice for president, vice president and senators.
The Northern Alliance president, Deputy Speaker Eric Singson, said the group will try to come up with a single roster for its “wish list.”
“We will review their platforms and how these could affect Northern Luzon,” he said.
“We need to know those who would be sympathetic to the Ilocanos,” Singson added.
Among the pertinent issues are agriculture, infrastructure, tourism and the tobacco industry, he said.
So far, only administration bet Gilbert Teodoro is touting himself to be a genuine Ilocano-speaking the dialect fluently whenever he comes to campaign in Ilocano-speaking areas.
Villar challenges Noynoy to psycho, physical tests
SEN. Manny Villar, meanwhile, challenged all presidential and vice-presidential candidates to agree to a comprehensive physical and mental examination in order to ascertain their fitness to occupy the highest office of the land.
Villar said that unlike Sen. Benigno Aquino III of the LP, he, as the presidential candidate of the NP, has no problem undergoing a battery of psychological and physical tests.
“Noynoy cannot hide behind his claim to privacy because the mental state of anyone who aspires to be president or vice president is a matter of public concern,” said Villar.
“There’s a far more dangerous scenario than the blind leading the blind, and that is for a mentally challenged person to lead a nation of millions,” said Villar.
Broadcaster Tina Monzon Palma had also called on Aquino to go through a psychological test to put the issue to rest, according to a report on the web site of television network ABS-CBN.
NP spokesman Gilbert Remulla had earlier asked ABS-CBN to name names to disabuse the minds of the public that the copy of the “psychological test” on Aquino came from the party.
In a blog, journalist Lynda Jumilla had cited information that the test on Aquino may have indeed come from his own men.
Remulla said that blaming the Nacionalista Party for the “psycho report” on Aquino is part and parcel of the “black propaganda operation being undertaken against Villar.”
With K. Bacongco and M. Victa
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