BBM-Sara tandem tops Times survey

FORMER senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio topped the presidential-vice presidential tandem survey of The Manila Times.

In the survey conducted from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2, 1,500 respondents were asked, “If you were to vote for a president and a VP pair, who do you think is the best tandem for the Philippines?”

Respondents were given seven pairs to choose from. The survey showed that 55.7 percent of those polled picked the partnership between Marcos and Duterte-Carpio, with a 43.5 percent lead over the second place.

This result came out even if the Davao City mayor did not file a certificate of candidacy (CoC) for vice president.

The second most popular choice of respondents for the President-VP tandem was Marcos and Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, with 12.2 percent. This was followed by running mates Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo and Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan with a share of 10.6 percent, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso and Dr. Willie Ong with 8 percent, and Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao and Buhay party-list Rep. Jose “Lito” Atienza Jr., 7.2 percent.

Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and running mate Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto 3rd got 4.5 percent, and Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Go, 1.8 percent.

Even with the removal of the dela Rosa-Go tandem, Marcos and Duterte-Carpio still secured 55.1 percent of the votes as Marcos-Go’s share slightly increased at 13.3 percent while Lacson-Sotto also saw a 1-percent increase to 5.5 percent share.

When he filed his CoC, Marcos declared that he was open to discussing with other political parties a possible partnership on who will stand as his running mate for the 2022 elections.

Marcos also topped the presidential survey conducted by The Manila Times, where 68 percent of the respondents said they would vote for the former senator. He was the top choice in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Robredo ranked second with 10.8 percent.

The poll was conducted using Google Survey, with a combination of face-to-face and assisted phone interviews. The results of the survey have a margin of error of ±3 percent.

Marcos’ camp said the survey showed that despite the malicious attacks by some quarters against him, the former senator was still “winning the heart” of the voting population.

Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) Secretary General Thompson Lantion said the survey, conducted between October 26 and November 2 “by the oldest and one of the reputable broadsheets in the country, occurred at the time when the detractors of Bongbong were pushing hard on their decades-old rehashed ‘Oxford diploma’ controversy.”

“The harder they pushed on with their hate-based innuendos against Bongbong, the bigger their numbers fall in the survey as shown by the big margin of the ratings between BBM (Bongbong Marcos) and all his opponents,” Lantion said in a statement.

“It is the authentic Filipino culture for the underdog that keeps Bongbong’s survey number to shoot up and lead the pack of the 2022 presidentiables,” he added. “Such a scenario happens when the aggressors’ narratives against the intended victim are packed with lies instead of sound arguments, and if their victim manages to restrain himself from fighting back and remains humbled by his innocence and faith for unity.”

“Despite being in the receiving end of the unfounded invectives, Bongbong remained humble and calm and stayed focused on his campaign for a unifying presidency should he win in next year’s election,” Lantion said.

Last week, a group filed a petition asking the Commission on Elections to invalidate Marcos’ CoC.

However, some legal experts said that there was no basis for the petition since the former senator has not been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.

A group cited the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Ty-Delgado v. HRET that disqualification arising from a conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude shall be removed after the expiration of a period of five years from the service of sentence under Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code.

Then Associate Justice Antonio Carpio used the case of Teves v. Comelec as his basis in the computation of the disqualification that has a period of five years.

The Court of Appeals fined Marcos for his non-filing of income tax returns in 1997. He paid the fines in December 2001. The group said that following the Supreme Court ruling on the five-year period, the disqualification case against him has lapsed.

WITH BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO