THE race to the second-highest post in government is a must-follow in Philippine politics. Unlike in the United States where the president and his/her vice presidential pick are elected as a team and from the same party, Filipino voters pick their choices for president and vice president, independently from one another.
This is why the position of VP is a contest of its own, and the winning candidate may be a blessing or a curse to the winning president, if they belong to different parties. Moreover, the vice president is next in line in the executive branch of government, who will take over the top post if the president dies or becomes incapacitated to perform his/her duties.
With only five weeks to go before the Philippine presidential elections, the VP race is just beginning to get exciting. With Sen. Chiz Escudero and Sen. Bongbong Marcos as frontrunners, Congresswoman Leni Robredo, the underdog in the race who started to poll a meager 3 percent in September 2015, is now catching up to the ratings of Marcos and Escudero.
The unassuming lawyer-congresswoman widow of the late DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo is now polling at 24 percent in the March 4-7 survey of the Social Weather Station (SWS). Robredo recorded the biggest bump in the polls among the VP slate, up 5 percent from the previous poll.
With a ±2-point sampling error margin, SWS survey results show Escudero led the chart with 28 percent while tied with Marcos, 26 percent.
With Robredo gaining consistently almost every month, can she pull an upset and be elected vice president in the May 9 elections?
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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
