Why Grace Poe regains No. 1 slot

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I had an animated conversation recently with a private contractor of a mayor. He told me that when he gambled at the Casino at Clark in Pampanga he saw three town mayors. He said the two mayors, who moonlighted as contractors, too, told him to join them on their table because they lost already P700 thousand.

Photo Credit: CNN

“Nasaan si Mayor X (one of the mayors that benefited on illegal gambling Jueteng)?” I asked the private contractor.

“Nasa private room sa itaas kasama iyong kabit niya na bata, nagpapalipas ng malas,” he answered.

He told me on that night, Mayor X gambled and lost P2 million in that casino.

***

I told friends last week at social media that presidential bet Grace Poe could recover after rival Jojo Binay eclipsed her led in the two surveys in December last year.

Today, the Pulse Asia’s Pulso ng Bayan Pre-Electoral Survey conducted from January 24 to 28 with 1,800 respondents revealed that 33 percent of the respondents would vote for Poe.

Vice President Jejomar Binay who got 23 percent,  Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte  who both garnered 20 percent shared the third spot.

***

Here were my arguments last week at my blog and my prescience:

“Watching the evening news, the foundling issue sympathetically raised by Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno had been played again not only by TV 5 but by the two other major TV stations ABS and GMA-7. Poe also has a TV ad that talks about her father, famous actor Fernando Poe, Jr., being harassed by court cases but at the end was upheld by the Supreme Court as Filipino citizen. "Parang pelikula iyon, bugbog muna si Fernando pero sa huli siya rin ang mananalo," a man quipped at the ads. Then, Comelec included Grace’s name at the official ballot for the presidential race in May 9. The foundling issue argued by well meaning people, effective TV advertisement, and inclusion of Grace at the Comelec's ballot would be the factors she could catapult herself to No.1.

What I'm driving here is I crossed my fingers waiting for the next surveys from Pulse Asia and Social Weather Station if Poe can overtake Binay who became No. 1 in the two polls”.
Tapos na iyong acrimony and brouhaha ng mga kalaban sa disqualification issues. Gasgas na kaya tumataas na ang poll stocks ni Ate Grace Poe, Am I right Atty. Gary Jimenez and Boss Sendong So?

In that January’s poll, Pulse Asia’s President Ronald Holmes said only Poe and Binay experienced “marked movements in their presidential voter preferences between December 2015 and January 2016.”

According to a poll  last December 2015, Poe got a 9-percent increase while Binay had a 10-percent decline.

Roxas spiked by 3 percent while Duterte’s numbers decline by three percentage points.

Poe’s vice presidential tandem Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero maintained his lead having 33 percent voter preference while Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. placed second with 23 percent.

Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo and Sen. Alan Peter S. Cayetano both landed in the third place with 18 percent and 14 percent, respectively.