DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte may have had the most challenging week of his campaign, just a week before the all-important presidential election in the Philippines, following allegations made by VP candidate Sen. Antonio Trillanes. Trillanes alleged that the Philippine presidential front-runner has multiple bank accounts with millions of pesos not declared in his Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).
This allegation of corruption and many other attacks on Duterte’s character have been branded as black propaganda by the Duterte camp and his followers, alleging that his opponents are so desperate to pull him down after his dominance in the recent polls all over the country.
But as some say, all is fair game in politics, especially when a candidate has given his detractors ammunitions to fire back at him. Duterte has been criticized over many issues like his rape statement wen he said he, the mayor, should have been the first one to rape the murdered Australian.
Then there were more among many others: his own words admitting he has killed people and is willing to kill more to get things done as his approach to governance; his cursing the popular Pope Francis; his blatant unapologetic and even bragging statement that he is a womanizer; the allegations that he has ghost employees; his reported statements that if elected, he will release former Pres. Gloria Arroyo; that he will allow deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos be buried in Libingan ng mga Bayani; and that he will let Bongbong Marcos take over if he fails to resolve crimes in the first three months of his presidency.
Just this past week, something has been happening in the polls. We see the rise of DILG Sec. Mar Roxas in surveys, especially following the last debate hosted by ABS-CBN.
In the Pulse Asia survey for the period April 26-29, Duterte may have stayed at top place at 33 percent, unchanged from the April 19-24 survey, but Roxas has climbed up to second place with 22 percent, a 2 percent rise from the previous poll.
The D’ Strafford Research and Strategies Poll for the period April 25-29 could be more problematic for Duterte. It showed Roxas on top with 27.8 percent, followed by Duterte with 25.4 percent.
If this trend continues, could Roxas pull an upset on May 9, and be elected president?
ABANGAN!
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
