Marcos tops final pre-election surveys
SENATOR Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. said he would fight any move to remove Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte once he wins the presidency of the country as it is very divisive and would not be good for the country which is now facing a lot of grave problems.
Marcos made the statement during a press conference in Davao City last Friday night when he said he had also heard about the “Plan B” of the administration as a desperate move to thwart a Duterte presidency.
Part of the socalled Plan B, the senator said, is the tactical alliance proposed by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III between administration candidate Mar Roxas and independent presidential candidate Grace Poe.
President Aquino earlier claimed in a television interview that Duterte’s survey rating is only 30 percent and that it is possible to defeat him if the alliance of Roxas and Poe could capture the remaining 70 percent of the voters. He was silent about the rating of Vice President Jejomar Binay.
This is the reason, Marcos said, why Malacañang is conditioning the mind of the public that Liberal Party vice presidential bet Leni Robredo is already leading the VP race.
“Talagang the desperation is showing,” he said, “These are all desperate attempts to try to salvage somehow the candidacy of the administration candidates.
“I also have heard that Senator Grace has turned down the offer. Maliwanag na maliwanag na naghahanap sila ng paraan na baguhin ang resulta dahil sila mismo alam nila wala na silang panalo,” Marcos bared.
He said Plan B is very simple. “Ipipilit nila na , itataas nila sa survey si Robredo. Dadayain nila para panalo pagka bise president. Tapos pagnanalo na si Duterte, e-impeach na si Duterte para si Robredo, LP parin, ang mamumuno.”
Marcos said he was told about Plan B by an LP insider himself. “Yan daw ang mga pinag uusapan.”
The leading vice presidential bet, however, said that he would also not support any move to run after President Aquino and put him to jail.
He said “it’s time to end this vicious cycle of running after the past administration and putting them behind bars as what happened to Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.”
Marcos said the best defense of a possible impeachment against Duterte is a vice president Marcos.
He said he would never support any impeachment against Duterte. And with him as VP, the Liberal Party members in Congress would not dare impeach Duterte since it would be a Marcos that would replace the president.
Senator Bongbong Marcos is the leading choice of Filipino voters, according to a vice presidential preference poll completed within a week prior to the May 9 general elections. The last pre-election surveys were conducted by the two most reliable pollsters in the country, Social Weather Stations (SWS) and the Standard’s Laylo Report.
In the latest SWS poll done between May 1 to 3, Marcos regained the lead with 29% out of 4,500 survey respondents nationwide. He was followed by lone female candidate, Rep. Robredo of Camarines Sur, who garnered 28%. Four other candidates are also running for the second highest post in the land, but their survey ratings are low.
Marcos’ ranking jumped four points compared to his performance in the immediately preceding SWS polls taken on April 18 to 20. On the other hand, Robredo inched up two percentage points over the same period. Both candidates now have double-digit leads versus their other rivals.
Meanwhile, the Laylo Report published by national broadsheet The Standard revealed similar results. Marcos garnered 30% of 3,000 likely voters who were polled between April 27 and May 1. Close behind was Robredo at 29%, and a far third was Senator Chiz Escudero at 20%. The three other candidates had a combined 18%.
Philippine Star columnist Babe Romualdez considers the Laylo Research Strategies (LRS) firm as the most credible polling organization in the country. It was founded by Pedro Laylo Jr. in 2001 after he retired from SWS. Laylo obtained his master’s degree in political science from the University of Connecticut’s Roper Center with a concentration in public opinion research.
Romualdez said billionaire businessman Enrique Razon Jr. “has been relying on the Laylo surveys even when he was still the owner of The Standard (then known as Manila Standard Today) to assess the political landscape and gauge voters’ choices.” According to Romualdez, the shipping tycoon regularly commissions LRS to  conduct surveys because its methodology is the most detailed and comprehensive with the biggest sample size representing all 18 regions of the Philippines.
