If not for black prop, Villar would have surged ahead

If not for the black propaganda thrown against him, Sen. Manny Villar would have overtaken Liberal’s Sen. Noynoy Aquino in the latest Pulse Asia’s poll of voters’ choice for president, Nacionalista Party (NP) senatorial bet Marine Col. Ariel Querubin said. “It would not have been a tie. Senator Villar would have surged ahead of Senator Aquino if only he was not subjected to vicious black propaganda,” the bemedalled marine officer said.
By his estimate, Villar “easily lost five points to the adverse publicity caused by the deliberate raking up of the lies associated with the C-5 controversy.”
Despite the “lies and slanders,” Querubin said Villar “has managed to wipe out a 40-point deficit” to pull alongside his Liberal rival in a dead heat a week ahead of the official start of the 90-day campaign.
“But the acceleration of our candidate would have been faster if only the black propaganda had not provided a drag,” he said.
“These were the static noises that blocked our message that in Senator Villar we have a leader who is both competent compassionate as against his main opponent who is untested and uncaring,” Querubin added.
The marine colonel said the “below-the-belt barrage” against Villar ranged “from nasty text blasts, to plenary antics of his opponents, yet these did not bring him down, but on the contrary catapulted him up to the frontrunner position.
He said the NP camp monitored seven anti-Villar “blast text messages” a day, all containing lies on the C-5 issue.
“We wake up to text messages vilifying Villar, learn about new online attacks, and go to bed with another anti-Villar tirade as the last text message for the day in our phones,” he said.
“Our opponents have been griping that we have been running more ads than them. But what they are not saying is that they are spending millions of pesos in sending out millions of these deceitful text messages.”
Querubin said attacks against Villar also made their way to the Senate floor. “The gavel-to-gavel TV coverage of the unfair proceedings emboldened many senators to abuse their parliamentary immunity in launching tirades against him.”
“Fortunately, the mature electorate can see through these antics as nothing but vote-getting stunts and a foul ploy of taking him out of the race,” he said.
With or without the C-5 issue, Querubin said they expect Villar’s numbers to climb up. “The momentum is there. Our message is getting through. Their tactic is backfiring as the persecution of Senator Villar is making him a martyr – and a president – in the eyes of his countrymen,” he said.