WHAT DO THE PULSE ASIA SURVEY RESULTS TELL US?

 

Marcos Jr. – 56%

VP Leni – 24%

Let’s go over the 2016 election results in which VP Leni won the vice-presidential race:

VP Leni – 14,418,817 votes – 35.11%

Marcos Jr. – 14,155,344 votes – 34.77%

Let’s run through what each got done from 2016 to 2021.

VP LENI’S NUMBERS DON’T LIE

VP Leni as a VP (despite being sidelined and denied the traditional Cabinet portfolio by PRRD) has transformed her office into an advocacy-driven base geared towards uplifting the lives of the poorest and the marginalized (mga nasa laylayan) with the help of the private sector through her flagship poverty alleviation program – Angat Buhay. It partnered with 372 organizations, mobilized P520 million worth of resources, helped 622,000 families, and reached 223 cities and municipalities.

1. Youth Empowerment

Mobilized P2.43 million that helped more than 391 youth from 140 youth groups, organized 7 youth summits, and provided assistance to more than 46 projects.

2. Health Care

Mobilized P82.14 million for medical assistance and P39.49 million for about 44 nutrition programs, provided feeding programs to more than 800 children in Iloilo, and built a mental health facility in Cebu.

3. Education

Provided P122.96 million for infrastructures including 81 classrooms and 5 dormitories and extended scholarship and skills training to more than 120 youth.

4. Women Empowerment

Given access to livelihood opportunities, work, capital, and mentoring to more than 138 women.

5. Sustainable Livelihood and Training Program

Turned over more than P15.39 million in livelihood projects to 156 fishermen, farmers, small business owners, and riders, including 33 accredited civil society organizations and 11 nanay entrepreneurs.

6. Rural Development

Turned over P47.3 million worth of assets to farmers and fishermen including boats, livestock, tools, and access to credit institutions; and initiated Omasenso Kabuhayan project that partnered with 11 farmers’ organizations.

7. Housing and Settlement

Over P15.4 million spent on housing and resettlement projects, established Angat Buhay village in Marawi City after the Marawi siege and BAHAYanihan Program in Bicol.

8. Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation

Provided P146.83 million worth of private donations and spent P82.25 million for relief efforts.

9. Covid Response

Spent over P113 million for pandemic response initiatives that include Bayanihan E-Konsulta, Swab Cab, Vaccine Express, Community Learning Hubs, and Community Mart – despite not receiving Covid-19 funds from the national government.

 10. Highest Audit Rating

In the past 6 years, the OVP received the ISO certification and the highest audit rating from Commission on Audit (COA) for 3 straight years.

MARCOS JR. NUMBERS DON’T LIE

Sad to say, I could not find any tangible accomplishment of Marcos Jr. during the last five years, understandably, because he lost then the vice-presidential race and hence, had no official office to carry out any public service accomplishment. Instead, a different set of numbers have predominated during such period up to the present as follows:

P174.2 billion recovered in ill-gotten wealth

P125.9 billion in pending cases

P203 billion in unpaid estate taxes

$2 billion in damages awarded to almost 10,000 human rights victims

P10 billion in compensation to more than 11,000 human rights victims

Interestingly, Marcos Jr.’s former wife revealed that he decided to run while watching the movie “Ant-Man,” lamentably, with the following handicaps:

o   Can’t join debates

o   Can’t disclose SALN

o   Can’t provide a solid platform

o   Can’t pay taxes

o   Can’t enter America

o   Can’t accept defeat

o   Can’t return stolen wealth

Calling into question Marcos Jr.’s fitness for presidency, hence, FB netizens have put up in the internet the viral side-splitting meme “Can’t Man.”

DISINFORMATION

Moreover, during that period after the 2016 election up to the present, an insidious undertaking has happened – disinformation – which Tsek.ph study revealed, and I mentioned in my past article “Someone Is In For A Big Surprise”:

“Based on the data of Tsek.ph (a fact-checking collaboration of 34 academe, media, and civil society partners) covered since the filing of the candidacy up to mid-February, the election disinformation has targeted mainly VP Leni receiving negative messaging while Marcos Jr. earning positive branding.

“Robredo’s quotes have been mangled, twisted, [or] fabricated to make her look like she is spouting nonsense. She has been called, rather harshly, Madumb, lutang, tanga, utal-utal.” (Yvonne Chua, journalism professor, and Tsek.ph’s project leader)

“The distribution of disinformation appears to be coordinated which jibed with the Digital Public Pulse study on “networked political manipulation” carried out by highly influential yet dubious social media accounts. Right on such an issue, Twitter suspended more than 300 accounts from the supporter base of Marcos Jr. for violating the company’s platform manipulation and spam policy.”

Rappler got behind the veracity of the negative impact of such “networked political manipulation”:

“The presidential campaign of dictator’s son Ferdinand ‘Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is reaping the benefits from a long-time disinformation machinery that not only whitewashed the atrocities under martial Law but also targeted critics and political opponents, among others.”

Disinformation “is really priming the audience to rationalize [the Marcos] lies and distortions,” asserted Fatima Gaw, assistant professor of communication research at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

If truth be told, the “embryo” of this disinformation was first spawned in 2014 as exposed by whistleblower Brittany Kaiser of now-defunct Cambridge Analytica which I quoted in my past article “Someone Is In For A Big Surprise”:

“When I joined Cambridge Analytica in 2014 we had already worked in the Philippines. There was a national campaign where my former company had gone in and undertaken national research to figure out what was the type of persona that would resonate best with voters…

“We had a request straight from Bongbong Marcos to do a FAMILY REBRANDING. This was brought in through internal staff at Cambridge Analytica and was debated. Some people didn’t want to touch it and there were others like our CEO Alexander Nix that saw it as a massive financial opportunity and asked us to write the proposal anyway. So, as you call it: HISTORICAL REVISIONISM.” (Underscoring mine)

ANALYSIS

Now, let’s analyze the Pulse Asia survey.

Total registered voters: 67,500,000

Sample size: 2,400 respondents

Survey results:

Marcos Jr. – 56%

VP Leni – 24%

2016 election base support:

VP Leni – 14,418,817 votes – 35.11%

Marcos Jr. – 14,155,344 votes – 34.77%

Total number of projected voters in May 2022 election based on survey:

For Marcos Jr. – 37,800,000 votes (56% of 67,500,000)

For VP Leni – 16,200,000 votes (24% of 67,500,000)

Number of added projected voters based on the survey to the 2016 base support:

For Marcos Jr. – 23,644,656 votes (37,800,000 minus 14,155,344)

For VP Leni -- 1,781,183 votes (16,200,000 minus 14,418,817)

CONCLUSION

Question: What do the Pulse Asia survey results tell us?

Answer: More than 23 million Filipinos have dismissed VP Leni’s accomplishment, but instead have turned into suckers for Marcos Jr.’s disinformation.

Question to the Reader: Do you believe such collective opinion of Pulse Asia’s 1,344 (56% of 2400) survey respondents?