Tomorrow’s third and final presidential debate among the five candidates in Laguna will perhaps serve as the final piece in helping voters choose who among them deserves their vote on May 9.
From the first fumbling steps in Cagayan de Oro City to the testy and fiery exchange in Cebu City, the change in debate venue matters little when compared to what the candidates have to say to the public as the campaign period winds down to its final weeks.
As the heat of the campaign trail reaches fever pitch, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is leading the pack with a considerable points lead based on a Pulse Asia, ABS-CBN survey. And while his rivals appear unconcerned, their followers are worried sick.
Duterte’s latest, tasteless rant which involved the gang-rape and death of an Australian female missionary is said to probably lower his ranking in the surveys, but will it be low enough for the closest candidate, Sen. Grace Poe, to overcome?
Only the most rabid of Duterte’s followers have ignored their leader’s glaring tendency to mouth off and attack anyone who dares cross his path in order to bolster his candidacy and project him as a strong man leader — likely a leader that won’t tolerate opposition as seen in his longstanding rule in Davao City.
His comments on negotiating with China over the disputed Spratlys Islands and his disparaging remarks on the US and other allies have cast doubts on his capacity for being a statesman and merely affirmed his earlier proclamation about being a left-leaning official.
Whether he and his followers can sustain their momentum is anyone’s guess, but credit to his rising popularity in the surveys can be attributed to the aggressive social media marketing done by his people.
While his rivals are also no slouches in the social media campaign scene, it doesn’t help raise their profiles enough to overcome Duterte’s strong showing in the surveys.
Even Poe, erstwhile survey leader, is bogged down by her affiliation with the Nationalist People’s Coalition, whose founder Danding Cojuangco has been railed at by coco farmers group mired in a long-running legal dispute over the coco levy funds.
These developments come into sharp focus in the presidential debate which will no doubt give each candidate an opportunity to sharpen his or attacks on the opponents and expose their cracks for the voting public to see and laugh at.
Time and a lot more surveys will determine if the last presidential debate may firm up the existing survey standings of the candidates or cause an overhaul for one of them.
We can only hope tomorrow’s debate will be a lot better than the previous two and influence voters into making a better choice for the country’s next leader.
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