Grace, Bongbong top people power week survey

MANILA, Philippines – Senators Grace Poe and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. topped a Pulse Asia survey taken during the week when the nation celebrated the 30th anniversary of the 1986 people power revolt.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte nudged Vice President Jejomar Binay from second spot in the presidential race in the Feb. 23-27 survey commissioned by ABS-CBN.

Poe was the preferred presidential candidate of 25 percent of respondents, followed by Duterte with 23 percent and Binay with 22 percent. The administration candidate, Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II ranked fourth with 20 percent. Trailing them is Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago with three percent.

In the vice presidential race, Marcos edged past – but remained statistically tied at No. 1 – with Sen. Francis Escudero, Poe’s running mate. Marcos and Escudero obtained 26 and 25 percent, respectively.

Marcos’ rating was unchanged from a similar survey conducted on Feb. 16 to 20, while Escudero suffered a three-point decrease from 28 percent.

In third is Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo of LP, whose ratings jumped from 17 percent in the third week of February to 21 percent in the latest survey.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano obtained 12 percent, while Senators Gregorio Honasan and Antonio Trillanes got six percent and four percent, respectively.

Senate race

In the Senate race, the Pulse Asia survey showed that 14 candidates have the chance to be included in the “Magic 12.”

They are former senators Francis Pangilinan, Richard Gordon, Panfilo Lacson and Juan Miguel Zubiri; and reelectionist senators Vicente Sotto III, Franklin Drilon, Ralph Recto, Sergio Osmeña III and Teofisto Guingona III.

Also included are former justice secretary Leila de Lima, former Akbayan lawmaker Risa Hontiveros, boxing icon and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, former Technical Education and Skills Development director-general Joel Villanueva and Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian.

The survey has an error margin of plus/minus 1.9 percent.

Academe moves vs Marcos

Hundreds of academicians from different educational institutions yesterday issued a joint statement opposing the vice presidential bid of Marcos Jr.

Criticizing the senator for calling the dictatorship led by his father the “Golden Days of Philippine History,” almost 200 faculty members signed a statement explicitly opposing the candidacy of Marcos.

“Educators and the rest of the Filipino people must unite against the wrong version of history that is being propagated by Ferdinand Jr. and his allies. The pages of history are clear: Marcos was a crook and a human rights violator,” the statement, written in Filipino, read.

Among the signatories were National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera as well as faculty members from the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas and Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU).

Other signatories were faculty members from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Mindanao State University, Mapua Institute of Technology, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, National University and the Technological Institute of the Philippines.

The statement was issued days after more than 500 ADMU faculty members as well as five Jesuit leaders of Ateneo universities in the country, issued a statement criticizing Marcos for defending the martial law era.

Among those who signed the statement were Jose Ramon Villarin of ADMU, Primitivo Viray of the Ateneo de Naga, Joel Tabora of Ateneo de Davao, Roberto Yap of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, and Karel San Juan of Ateneo de Zamboanga.

“We reject the revision of history, disturbing vision of the future, and shallow call for ‘unity’ being presented by Marcos Jr. and like-minded candidates in the 2016 elections,” read the Ateneo statement.

“The Marcos regime’s economics of debt-driven growth was disastrous for the Philippines. The regime was not interested in inclusive development, long-term state-building, nor genuine social transformation of the country, despite its ‘New Society’ rhetoric,” it added.

CEAP backs call

The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), which has over 1,400 member-schools, also expressed support for the Ateneo statement.

CEAP advocacy and information management officer Anthony Coloma said they share the sentiment of ADMU against efforts by the younger Marcos  to “canonize the harrowing horrors of martial rule.”

“With the same fervor, we cry our hearts out, ‘Never again!’” CEAP added.

Coloma said that as Catholic educators they are committed to teach the truth. “We encourage our various institutions of learning to assess the quality and the content of our instruction relative to the atrocities of the Marcos regime.”

CEAP also demanded from the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) the “same level of introspection.”

“It seems that we have been remiss in instilling in the youth’s consciousness about the regime’s brutal savagery. Instead, they have been drowned by the Marcosian snares and the Imeldific lies,” it added.

While it has been 30 years since the downfall of the dictator, CEAP said “the revolution, however, is unfinished.”

“The fullness of democratization, especially the creation of a social order which respects the dignity of all Filipinos, has yet to be achieved. It is our responsibility now as a people to continue and complete this unfinished struggle… We must start with the truth,” Coloma added.

Meanwhile, Antonio La Viña, outgoing dean of the ADMU School of Government, said politicians in Mindanao are likely to carry Marcos regardless of who they prefer to be the next president.

La Viña was among those who signed the Ateneo statement.

In a Facebook post, he disputed the claim of Senate President Franklin Drilon that the local campaign machine would strengthen the chances of administration bet Manuel Roxas II.

“Not going to happen, from what I am hearing on the ground. Every politician I talked to in Mindanao the last few days are moving to Duterte, Binay and Poe,” he said in the post.

“It seems also, regardless of presidential preference, that most of them will be carrying Marcos as their VP,” he added.

Latest survey conducted by Pulse Asia showed Marcos getting 19 percent of support from Mindanao, next to Senators Francis Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano who both got 22 percent. – With Evelyn Macairan