Roxas: Fight now between Duterte and I

ROXAS

Fashioning himself as the anti-Rodrigo Duterte candidate has worked wonders for Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas, who yesterday characterized the election as a two-way horse race between him and the foul-mouthed Davao City mayor.

“The fight is now down to the two of us, Mayor Duterte and I,” Roxas told a press briefing at the LP’s Balay headquarters in Quezon City.

After trailing his rivals for months, Roxas rose by two points to place second in the latest Pulse Asia survey, statistically tying with Sen. Grace Poe. His voter support went up to 22 percent, while Poe, slipping by one point, was at 21 percent.

Duterte, the leader, remained steady with 33 percent. Binay only placed fourth with 17 percent, down one percent from the previous survey conducted from April 19 to 24. Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago only got two percent.

Roxas reveled in the fact that only he among the candidates was on an upward trajectory, saying “momentum is with us.”

“Our rivals are going down, while we are going up. This is a reflection of the trust the people have continued to give us, and we thank them for it,” he said.

Asked about what factors led to his rise, Roxas said it was a combination of a strong performance during the April 24 debate and the recent controversies surrounding Duterte, including an outrageous rape joke and alleged multi-million transactions in his bank accounts.

In the vice presidential race based on the latest April 26-29 Pulse Asia survey commissioned by ABS-CBN, Escudero, erstwhile frontrunner, was trailing behind administration candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo (30 percent, ) and Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (28 percent) with 18 percent of voter preference.

However, Escudero said his camp was doing everything they can to improve his numbers, with only five days left before the national elections.