Robredo enjoys I-Told-You-So moment as Bongbong Marcos notches a SOLID 49.3 percent preference rating in latest poll!

The latest Publicus Asia survey report Pahayag Q3 2021 is out and the results are sure to make the Opposition cry a river. Cutting to the presidential race, former Senator Bongbong Marcos tops the preference numbers at 49.3 percent with “vice president” Leni Robredo a far far second at 21.3 percent overall. Consistent with this, Robredo cops a whopping 40.4 percent disapproval rating, easily dwarfing the negative ratings of fellow top officials President Rodrigo Duterte and Senate President Tito Sotto who rated at 21.4 and 27.0 percent disapproval scores respectively. The only consolation here for Robredo is that she can enjoys a bit of an I-told-you-so moment as the broader Opposition, on edge, gingerly stares into the abyss of another potential catastrophic rout.

Robredo’s closest brush with Marcos’s numbers are, not surprisingly, in her Southern Luzon bailiwick albeit still short by almost seven percentage points of the latter’s 38.2 percent preference rating there. Only six of Robredo’s eleven-member senatorial slate made the Top 15 preferred senatorial candidates: Chel Diokno, Chiz Escudero, Dick Gordon, Risa Hontiveros, Joel Villanueva, and Migz Zubiri. Liberal Party stalwarts Teddy Baguilat and Leila De Lima trailed far behind below the 21-rank mark together with Magdalo candidate Antonio Trillanes. It is, indeed, looking bad for what is left of the Liberal Party of Yellowtard yore with Robredo’s running mate, vice presidential candidate, languishing at fifth ranking (below the “Undecided” respondents) attracting just 12.3 percent of respondents’ vote.

The results of the Emotional Quotient ratings of top leaders Duterte, Robredo, and Sotto is also an indictment of the Philippines dominant religious establishment. Duterte, whose trust score dwarfs that of the other two has “religious” at the bottom of traits most admired about him by respondents. Robredo and Sotto, on the other hand, had “religious” rating at the top of their most admired trait list. This is a clear message to the country’s once-formidable kingmaker, the Roman Catholic Church and its henchmen in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to butt the hell out of electoral politics. Filipinos do not care about religiousness in their leaders. The Church’s blessing evidently contributes a Reverse Midas Touch to politicians today. Duterte’s public perception of being “Brave” and “Decisive” is the same, with both traits at the bottom of Robredo’s and Sotto’s list of perceived personal attributes. For Robredo, the message is clear: fire your campaign strategists. Clearly, Filipinos want a real leader they can follow to battle — not some lame mother figure, and certainly not a candidate campaigning using the colour pink.

The thumbs down on the Opposition camp’s leading Yellowtard bloc extends to its top media mouthpiece “social news network” Rappler which ranked a dismal 13th in a list of 18 news outlets respondents were asked to rate for trustworthiness. Rappler, whose CEO Maria Ressa is this year’s Nobel “Peace Prize” laureate, did manage to beat news sites Eagle News, Summit Express, Abante, SMNI, and Politiko Online. One wonders then on what basis Ressa “won” her “Peace Prize” considering all the money she sucked up trotting the globe in order to schmooze with a who’s-who of Western mainstream media honchos. Indeed, it therefore becomes even more imperative that veteran journalists not take the Nobel committee’s insult to their professional community sitting down seeing that the organisation she leads finds itself in the company of the least trusted of the lot.

The Opposition is toast. At this stage, they will have been facing a Second Marcos Presidency in the face if the elections were held today. Either way, they will spend the rest of the campaign in the lead up to May 2022 shaking their heads unable to shake the thought that if they had only “united” under one “leader”, they could stand a chance of winning by a one percent margin over Marcos. Consider too that there is little hope of changing Marcos’s ratings. After all, whatever the Yellowtards and communists had thrown at him over the last thirty years did not prevent him getting to where he is today both position-wise and numbers-wise. What makes the Pinkies and the Commies think slinging the same mud at Bongbong Marcos over the next six months will yield different results for their political fortunes?

Oh my… where is Andy Bautista in these Yellowtards’ times of greatest need?

benign0

benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.