Within striking distance NEW SURVEY SHOWS DUTERTE IN 2ND PLACE

By Manny Piñol

Things are turning out just as they were analyzed and projected.

Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte, who has yet to declare his intentions for 2016, has dramatically moved up to second place in the survey for the most preferred Presidential prospect.

The July survey, privately commissioned by a corporate mogul whose results were shared with several individuals, showed the 70-year-old Duterte with 25%, occupying second place behind survey leader Senator Grace Poe.

In third place with 15% was Vice President Jejomar Binay whose free-fall continued following unanswered charges of corruption and unexplained wealth.

Administration candidate Interior Secretary Manuel A. Roxas III remained in far fourth with 11%.

(It should be emphasised that the privately commissioned survey was conducted before President Aquino’s endorsement of Roxas as his Presidential bet.)

While Duterte is only second to Poe in the preferential survey, he is considered as the virtual frontrunner because it is widely believed by legal experts that the neophyte Senator would not hurdle Constitutional questions on her residency and citizenship.

Poe was found abandoned in front of a church in Jaro, Iloilo and was later adopted by movie superstars Fernando Poe, Jr. and Susan Roces.

Later in life, Poe renounced her Philippine citizenship to become an American. She gave up her American citizenship on a date which is still a subject of dispute because she reportedly continued using her American passport in her travels up to 2012.

“These are serious Constitutional issues which must be addressed and these could not be covered up by heart-tugging stories or claims of bullying,” said law school dean Israelito Torreon.

The Philippine Constitution requires candidates for President to be natural born citizens which means that both biological parents or at least the mother must be Filipino citizens at the time of the candidate’s birth.

The Constitution also requires a residency of 10 years prior to the elections for President and Vice President.

A former Senatorial candidate who lost in the 2013 elections has already filed legal actions against Poe with the Senate Electoral Tribunal and the Commission on Elections (COMELEC).

While Duterte has remained reluctant and noncommittal to suggestions for him to run as President, a nation-wide movement which aims to convince him to lead the country is steadily growing.

Also, while Roxas and Binay have remained empty-handed in their search for a Vice Presidential running mate, at least two big political figures – Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Allan Peter Cayetano, both incumbent Senators – have insinuated that they are willing to be Duterte’s partner in the 2016 national elections.

Former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., chairman emeritus of PDP-Laban and father of the Local Government Code of the Philippines, said Duterte’s popularity is mainly due to the fact that of all the four leading Presidential prospects, it is only the Davao City Mayor who has addressed serious national concerns like criminality, illegal drugs, the communist insurgency and agriculture.

Duterte’s rating is expected to go even higher as people will start to realise that the citizenship and residency questions raised against Poe are real Constitutional issues and not just the usual political black propaganda.

Added to that is Binay’s irreversible free-fall and Roxas’ moribund political fate which was seriously damaged by his actuations and performance in the Typhoon Yolanda catastrophe.

As things stand now, it is becoming very clear that indeed, as Duterte himself earlier said, the Presidency is destiny.

(Photo caption: Mayor Duterte in M’lang, North Cotabato and with employees of the municipal government of M’lang. Roselyn Parillo)