LP leaders: Roxas-Poe tandem unbeatable

MANILA, Philippines - Some Liberal Party stalwarts think the tandem of Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II and Sen. Grace Poe in 2016 will be unbeatable, although they admit the situation is still very fluid.

Ratings of Roxas, LP’s “sentimental choice” to be standard bearer, surged in the latest Social Weather Stations survey, although Vice President Jejomar Binay was still the top choice to be the country’s next president.

The poll, conducted from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1, showed Binay leading the list of possible presidential candidates for 2016 with 37 percent of votes of 1,800 respondents nationwide. Poe was second with 21 percent, followed by Roxas with 19 percent.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, during the signing of the 2015 national budget at Malacañang yesterday, said they were really keen on having Poe in the administration ticket.

But Roxas remains to be LP’s apparent choice for president for now, according to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad after the signing of the budget.

“The talk about choosing from the outside is a secondary process that should happen after the initial process made by the party,” Abad said.

Asked if Roxas was in a good place, Abad said Binay was ranked 37 percent and “in other words, those who may not vote, based on that survey, for him is about 63 percent.”

“And eventually this thing will simplify into two or three candidates so in that sense, that number, at this stage, is I think… good but will definitely be better if eventually he decides to run and the party selects him, because there is always a bump upwards when candidates declare themselves available and even more so if they are endorsed by the sitting president,” Abad said.

“So there are more positive sides, upsides I should say, that he (Roxas) will enjoy once those declarations are made,” he said.

According to Abad, they have not yet formally discussed the lineup for 2016, saying it would be premature to talk about having guest candidates because in fairness to the party, it should be given the opportunity to consider first candidates within its ranks.

“And that has not happened yet so I cannot preempt that process. I think that’s the first thing that the party, any political party, will do, to look within its ranks to see who are probable and test the possibilities for the candidate or those candidates,” Abad said.

Abad said surveys were important as they would give the people’s sentiments at a particular time and would become more important as the race was defined.

“When only one has declared himself a candidate and the rest have not, then it’s really difficult to use it as a gauge in saying that one is a candidate and the other has a certain chance of winning because in the minds of people, this is not yet the time to make firm judgments, so that will still be a long time. But as we approach 2016, then that narrows down, it simplifies, and people’s thinking will be more definite and firm, but at this stage, it’s hard to say,” Abad said.

He said it was too early to make those conclusions as the surveys were still rather erratic.

“Sometimes one candidate is high, sometimes it’s not high and the reason for that is, I think the people have not really sat down to think about these things and these are just really top-of-mind responses since there’s only one candidate who has declared himself a candidate in 2016 and all the others have not,” Abad said.

He said most people lack the basis to make firmer judgment as to whom they should pick.

By next year, Abad said things were expected to change as the “pulse will become more intense,” especially towards the last quarter of the year.

This is because by October, Abad said candidates would have to file their certificates of candidacy, so the months before that would be the proper time for people to have clearer choices because decisions and selection processes would have been made.

“It’s obvious that those are all contenders and therefore they will figure out, depending on what decision they make, because we really don’t know if all those three eventually will formalize their candidacies,” Abad said.

“Just taking off from the experience of the sitting president, President Aquino, the decision was made eight months before the elections and we are like seven months away from eight months so it’s still a long way to go and many things can happen, and that’s the nature of presidential races in the Philippines,” he said.

“You can plan to be a congressman, a governor or even a senator, but to run for president, there are many variables that are involved,” Abad stressed.