BY NESTOR MATA: PRESIDENTIAL MARCH GETTING HOT
MANILA, MARCH 11, 2010 (MALAYA) (‘It’s not El Nino’s fault but the searing political atmosphere created by some candidates to stop Villar’s march to victory in the May polls.’ )THE POLITICAL atmosphere is getting hot. No, it’s not El Niño’s fault but rather by the searing desperate attempts by some candidates to stop the march of Manny Villar to the presidency.
Perhaps those candidates sense that the prize is slipping though their fingers, and so they’re digging their arms into the bin of dirty political tactics and hurling outright lies, deliberate untruths and fabricated falsehoods at their rival.
That’s exactly what’s happening as the long presidential march staggers onward to the finish line in May. And the target of their collective ire is Manny Villar, standard bearer of the Nacionalista Party. He has already overtaken Noynoy Aquino of the Liberal Party, who was leading in the surveys.
Other than the Social Weather Stations and the Pulse Asia, whose separate surveys have lately shown that Villar is statistically tied with Aquino, a new and the latest of public opinion surveys, conducted by the Campaigns and Issues, confirmed that Villar, with a 32% or nine percentage points, has now overtaken Aquino, who got only 23% of over 5,000 respondents nationwide, from Luzon, Visayas to Mindanao.
Of the 5,000 surveyed from February 10 to 20, 1,610 favored Villar and 1,162 for Aquino. And, quite remarkably, Gibo Teodoro of the Arroyo administration’s party got 930, 18 percentage points, or a mere 6% behind Aquino. Teodoro replaced former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada in third place with 247 or 5.75%.
The C&I survey was commissioned by British and American companies doing business in the Philippines. The London and New York-based business groups reportedly wanted to know the real score as to who in the pack of presidential aspirants is really leading in the race in the fast approaching national elections in May.
Not insignificantly, soon after C&I publicly released its survey results, Pulse Asia conducted its own on February 21 to 25, the very same week of the celebration of People Power ’86. The Aquino camp tried to subtly identify itself with it by alluding to the mythical role of Noynoy’s mother Cory in that historic event.
Most likely because of this, Aquino got 36 percent, one percentage point down from Pulse Asia’s January survey, while Villar rated 29 percent, down by six percentage point.
But it should be pointed out that the C&I survey was conducted by volunteers from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and interviewed 5,000 respondents nationwide.
Pulse Asia’s respondents were only 1,800, but in its release it didn’t include a region by region statistics, unlike C&I that disclosed the percentages of respondents in Luzon (57%), Mindanao (31%) and Visayas (11%), a total of 99.00% or 4,947 in all.
And, significantly, too, while C&I’s survey was commissioned by those foreign business groups in London and New York, Pulse Asia claimed its survey was not commissioned, but reliable reports say that it was indeed sponsored by some Makati City big business groups, known to favor Noynoy, that had flourished during Cory Aquino’s six-year presidency.
Now, to go back to the frenzied efforts to down Manny Villar. Dick Gordon of the Bagumbayan Party, who’s way, way down among the cellar dwellers in the surveys, has resurrected an accusation against Villar for bribery. It was first aired by then Senate President Johnny Ponce Enrile, now seeking reelection as senator, but it has since been utterly discredited as baseless.
Soon after Gordon’s puerile attempt to bring down Villar, Enrile identified fellow Senator Edong Angara as the "emissary" to bring Villar’s "offer" to Gordon to withdraw from the race. But this was quickly denied by Angara, who fumed "there’s absolutely no truth to that!" And no less than Gordon said it was indeed not Angara but someone else that he conveniently declined to name.
Even Loren Legarda, Villar’s running mate for the vice-presidency, and avowed "dear friend" of Gordon, declared that she didn’t believe Gordon’s claim. "Senator Villar will not do that. .. I’m sure about it…"
Legarda, who has been campaigning from province to province all over the country with Villar, added, "he’s well-loved by the people. I know my president. That’s not his habit… that’s not his trademark. He does not need to do that to win the presidency!"
For his part, Villar coolly told a radio commentator: "If you look at the characters… the players don’t change. They have taken turns to assail me in public, repeating … recycling the same old issues.
"They are saying the same things because their strategy is to create an impression an impression that I’m in the habit of bribing people. But all my money came from "sipag at tiaga" (hard work and patience), from my own sweat and blood…
I’ll win as president without soliciting the help of my critics!"
Still another presidential candidate, Aquino, has been attempting to discredit Villar, too, together with his corps of political operators and fellow Ateneans. They have fabricated a story with photos of an "opulent mansion" in Utah as owned by Villar.
Alas, it was exposed as a hoax by two of them who immediately apologized to the Villar camp!
Well, what we’re witnessing at this moment in time clearly shows that the insidious plan of those political plotters to bring down Manny Villar got entangled in contradictions and fizzled out!
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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