Of elections and underdogs

MANILA, Philippines - So what’s with being an underdog?

Presidential bets for the 2016 elections are now trying to portray themselves as the underdog of the race in what experts view as an effort to draw sympathy from voters.

No less than Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II acknowledged what seems to be a squabble among candidates for the label “underdog.”

Roxas, whose survey numbers improved significantly after being endorsed by President Aquino, said he deserves the label.

“I think there is a squabble as to who is the underdog but we are the underdog right?” Roxas told reporters in Iloilo last Thursday.

“We started at 4 percent and they were the frontrunner in some point. Vice President Binay was at 60 percent, Sen. Grace (Poe) was like at 40 or 50 percent,” he added.

Roxas was reacting to the claim of rival presidential candidate and opposition leader Vice President Jejomar Binay that he is the underdog in their rematch.

Binay defeated erstwhile survey leader Roxas during the vice presidential race in 2010. Roxas, however, filed an electoral protest and called for a review of the automated election system because of technical glitches.  

In a previous statement, Office of the Vice President media affairs head Joey Salgado said Binay is “fighting an uphill battle against those who are bent on continuing a regime of social inequality.”

Roxas claimed the underdog tag even if he has overtaken Binay for second place in the Social Weather Stations survey released early this week.

The survey showed Roxas’s score surging to 39 percent from 21 percent in June. His score edged Binay’s 35 percent but paled in comparison with that of Poe, who emerged as the survey frontrunner with 47 percent.

Even Poe has been labeled as an “underdog” because of questions on her Filipino citizenship, an issue widely viewed as the factor that catapulted her to the top spot.

Ironically, the camp of Binay was the first to claim that Poe is not qualified to run for president because of her citizenship.

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, a stalwart of Binay’s party United Nationalist Alliance, has since apologized to Poe amid speculations that the move had backfired on the vice president.  

Experts said politicians capitalize on the underdog tag because Filipinos tend to side with those whom they believe are being bullied or oppressed.

“Supposedly, we have a soft heart for underdogs. We are against the oppressors,” political science professor Amado Mendoza Jr. told The STAR in a phone interview yesterday. 

Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, said Filipinos tend to romanticize those who are oppressed.

“In our culture, the sympathy of people goes to the underdog. Bullies are very unpopular. In an election, if people view as the underdog, you will win,” he said.

Both Mendoza and Casiple believe that it will be hard for Roxas to project that he is the underdog. 

“It may not work for Roxas because he is the administration’s candidate,” Mendoza said.

Casiple said Roxas has an advantage because he has the support of the president. He, however, said it is too early to tell who would be viewed as the underdog by the voting public.

“The underdog tag is effective if voters believe it to be true. But you cannot dictate on people on what to believe,” Casiple said.