‘Surveys show Duterte will win’

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — Vice presidential candidate and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said the big lead of his runningmate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in the recent Pulse Asia survey over other rivals is one of the best indicators of winning the May 9 polls.

“What can be cheated is about five percent of the votes,” said Cayetano during a press briefing after a consultation with health workers in Barangay Tagas in Daraga, Albay last Friday.

Cayetano said that if there are 50 million registered voters and those who actually voted will reach 80 percent or 40 million, to cheat two million votes is difficult to do.

“To cheat 10 or 15 percent is very difficult to do,” said Cayetano.

He said that the more than 10 percent lead of Duterte in the recent surveys is still growing in the run-up to the elections.

“With the trend Mayor Duterte is enjoying, that is one of the best insurance for winning,” said Cayetano.

Duterte notched 33 percent, an 11-point lead over independent candidate Sen. Grace Poe who garnered 22 percent. Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Manuel Roxas II had 20 percent and Vice President Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) had 18 percent.

Poe, Roxas and Binay are statistically tied at second spot. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago still trailed far behind with only two percent.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said last Nov. 6 that some 54.6 million Filipinos registered for the 2016 national and local elections and about 20 million or 37 percent of registered voters are young people aged 18 to 35 who are social media savvy.

Meanwhile, Cayetano also reassured farmers that the country’s agricultural sector would be given priority under a Duterte administration.

Cayetano slammed the Aquino administration’s treatment of the agricultural sector, lamenting that its actions – or lack thereof – had resulted in tragedy for the country’s farmers, such as the violent dispersal of the protest in Kidapawan.

Cayetano said a Duterte-Cayetano government would implement several measures geared toward the betterment of the country’s agricultural sector.

He said he and Duterte would push for programs that will provide assistance to farmers, such as free and complete irrigation systems in the provinces, subsidized production inputs and additional infrastructure such as food terminals to connect farmers directly to the market.

Cayetano added that the same degree of attention would be given to the country’s fishing sector.    – With Mike Frialde