A recent survey said the vice presidential campaign of Mar Roxas has “appeared to have rammed into a concrete wall” amidst reports that several groups within the Aquino-Roxas camp have dumped Roxas in favor of Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay.
Binay has been a close ally of the Aquinos, following his appointment by Cory Aquino as the Officer-in-Charge of the Municipality of Makati in 1986.
According to the pre-poll survey of The Issues and Advocacy Center (The CENTER), NP-NPC-LDP Loren Legarda stays close behind Roxas’s 37% lead. She obtained 32% in Luzon, 30% in Visayas and 33% in Mindanao.
Legarda dominates Roxas (38% to 33%) in the Class “D” sector and (34% to 29%) in the Class “E” sector which Binay topped with 37%.
Legarda is also the preferred choice of voters whose ages range from 36-49 years old where she generated 41% as against Roxas’ 33%. She also leads in the 50 to 65 years bracket with 39% as against the 28% of Roxas in the same bracket.
The Center says Legarda has a big chance to win over Roxas if she can find the resources to keep abreast of Roxas.
Roxas is backed up by the Araneta clan who administers the Tuazon properties in Cubao, Quezon City and by the Lopezes who own and control the network giant ABS-CBN.
“Had Legarda only kept pace with Roxas in terms of TV/Radio placement, she could be leading Roxas by now. Roxas had to resurrect the same Mr. Palengke theme to titillate the public once again and had to dig deep into his war chest to put in more than 300 minutes of air time spots from December to before the start of the campaign period compared to the 120 minutes that Legarda was able to put into her own campaign,” according to The Center’s Pulso ng Pilipino survey taken from April 10 to 20.
Legarda who is running under the banner of the NP and her own party the Nationalist People’s Coalition appears to have benefitted from a wider field of support that cuts across all political parties including the pro-administration Lakas KAMPI CMD whose own vice presidential candidate Edu Manzano remains in the tail-end in the vice presidential race.
The Center said that Legarda is fast emerging as an alternative vice presidential candidate of political leaders nationwide who do not want to support Roxas, Manzano and or Makati Mayor Jojo Binay.
The Center asserts that local political leaders will always look for a winnable candidate to support, and Legarda provides these political leaders with that opportunity especially those who do not favor Roxas.