Leni Offers ‘Best Pro-Poor’ Agenda – Survey

Vice President Leni Robredo has topped a new survey among presidential aspirants offering the best pro-poor platform of government when elected. 

Based on the online survey conducted by Church-run Radyo Veritas from Dec. 1. 2021 to Jan. 15, 2022, 42 percent of the 2,400 respondents said that Robredo has the best pro-poor track record and platform of government. 

Trailing her were former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. with 25 percent; Sen. Panfilo Lacson with 15 percent, and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno with 12 percent. 

At least four percent of the respondents said that none of the presidential bets had the best pro-poor platform, while labor leader Leody de Guzman and former defense secretary Norberto Gonzales each received one percent of respondent votes. 

Presidential aspirants former Malacañang spokesman Ernesto Abella, Faisal Mangondato, Jose Montemayor and Sen. Manny Pacquiao were not included in the survey results as they did not get any vote from the respondents. 

Fr. Anton Pascual, Radyo Veritas president, said he hopes the survey will help presidential aspirants “look inwards in appreciation of genuine servant leadership,” which is being looked forward to by the Catholic electorate in the May elections. 

Pascual clarified that the goal of the survey was to create an “issue-based” assessment of the presidential aspirants and not determine the voting preference of Catholic voters. 

Leni on ad spending 

Meanwhile, Robredo clarified that funds used for advertisements supporting her presidential bid came from volunteers and not her official campaign team. 

“Most of these are volunteer groups,” Robredo said in response to a recent report showing that she is the biggest spender on Facebook advertisements among presidential candidates. 

“I understand why our volunteers feel the need to do that because it has been clear over the past five years and going into the campaign that our rival has a huge social media machinery,” she said. 

Without naming a particular candidate, Robredo also cited expenses of a rival that are not “over the table or aboveboard.” 

“We know that they do a lot of things, they spend money, but not like Facebook ads that you can actually compute and quantify,” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel. “Experts point out that they have troll armies. They have a machinery that is involved in massive disinformation campaign.” 

Robredo said her volunteers felt the need to contribute and support her amid the disinformation and fake news directed at her. 

Facebook data showed that Robredo’s official Facebook spent over P11 million in advertisements since August 2020. However, all of these came from volunteer groups “Dapat si Leni” and “Supporters of Leni Robredo.” 

The Vice President said her team is talking to the different volunteer groups to ensure proper coordination when the campaign period begins on Feb. 8. 

Related Reading: Marcos Ditched Traditional Political Ads on Facebook

Leni on Bongbong 

Asked about the disqualification case against Marcos, Robredo reiterated that she intends to defeat him in the upcoming elections. 

“The disqualification cases are stuff that are outside of what we’re fighting for. Meaning to say, if he has a liability, then he should be made to account. But that is outside our fight,” she said. 

“I want to be very focused on really correcting all the misinformation… that they have been propagating and successfully pushing forward,” she added, in apparent reference to false claims that Marcos was cheated in the 2016 vice presidential race. 

Also, the Vice President said she is not bothered by the report that 11 mayors from her home province, Camarines Sur, are throwing their support behind Marcos. 

“In 2016, when I was running for VP, almost no big politician in Bicol region threw their support for me… but I still got almost 70 percent of the Bicolano vote. Now, in this fight, I am the only Bicolano,” she said. 

At least two of the mayors cited in the press release of the Marcos camp have already clarified that they are actually supporting Robredo’s presidential bid. 

“So he lied. Again. Are we still surprised?” Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez tweeted yesterday. 

Leni cites DOH 

As regards the pandemic, Robredo welcomed government initiatives to combat COVID-19 like the launching of care kits by the Department of Health (DOH) and the establishment of vaccination sites in pharmacies. 

Robredo responded to social media posts noting that the DOH care kits contained fewer items than the one her office has been providing to confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past months. 

“We should not belittle it (DOH care kits). We should not compare any initiative that will bring good to the people,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino. 

On making vaccination more accessible to the public, Robredo said: “Making the vaccinations available in pharmacies, this is a very good move, but something that we could have done many months ago to make it more accessible.” 

She said vaccination and swabbing sites should also be established in transportation hubs, terminals and train stations, but frowned at the “no vaccination, no ride” policy in public transportation. 

“This is why I have been saying that we should offer reasonable incentives. We should run a proper communications and behavior change campaign,” said the Vice President on how unvaccinated individuals should be persuaded to get the jab. 

Pandemic budget 

Asked how her office was able to initiate COVID-19 programs given its limited funding, Robredo said she made sure that their budget is responsive to the health crisis. 

“When the pandemic started last year, we already made sure that our budget, the budget of the OVP is already a COVID budget. Meaning to say, all the non-essential things – when I say non-essential, (meaning) non-COVID related – we won’t focus on them anymore for now,” she said. 

“We are very mindful that we’re in the middle of a crisis and we make sure that our budget is responsive to the crisis we’re going through,” she added. 

The Vice President acknowledged the network of volunteers and partners that support her office’s initiatives, including the Swab Cab, Vaccine Express and Bayanihan E-Konsulta.