Puzzle pieces coming together

Puzzle pieces coming together | Daily Tribune

The results of successive surveys by a single pollster point to what may be read as the start of a vigorous campaign to disrupt the status quo and introduce a candidate who will revive the “Daang Matuwid” yellow era.

It does not yet matter who the new liberal democrat candidate will be, but the first stage of the campaign would be to erode the survey ratings of both President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte.

The recent surveys showed a massive slide in the trust and performance ratings of the two top leaders.

The results came out a week after the conduct of a totally off-season 2028 presidential preference poll, which was surprising since that election is still four years away and the political focus is on next year’s midterm polls where Senate, House and local government seats will be contested.

Nonetheless, the goal is to dislodge Sara who is conceded to be next in line to PBBM — which is considered a tough task due to her consistently high ratings that exceed even that of Mr. Marcos.

Along comes a neophyte with a strong media following who is emerging as the best option for the yellow horde, prompting a fresh campaign that is getting expensive funding from overseas.

In the premature survey, the senator is supposedly in a statistical tie with Sara.

The liberal democrats were shut out in the 2019 senatorial polls, and their candidates for the top two posts lost disastrously in 2022, making analysts declare their political extinction.

The hypocrites, however, continue to have strong financial and organizational backing coming out of the United States, particularly from billionaires who want the return of the Yellow Dynasty.

Most of “Daang Matuwid’s” adherents left the previous administration due to the strong public support for the president, who was iron-handed and changed all political traditions.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte made a simple pledge to bear down hard on the drug trade and end the crime wave that was indirectly caused by the incompetence of the regime of the late President Noynoy Aquino.

This clicked with the Filipinos, particularly overseas workers who perennially worry about their families left in the country.

The situation then of families enjoying an evening out without having to worry about being mugged became the unbeatable image that favored Duterte.

Demolishing the mystique that surrounds the Marcos-Duterte alliance is necessary before the hypocritical mob can hope to make a comeback.

The mob never ceased in its efforts to dislodge the former president during his term, but the efforts never succeeded because of his consistently high domestic support that negated all the efforts to paint a monstrous image of Duterte abroad.

Marcos has given an opening to his opponents by focusing too much on the country’s external problems. This has left gut issues such as prices and the return of the crime wave to eat into his political capital.

The succession line — that means Sara — is stopping the mob from launching an attempt to dislodge PBBM.

Using pollsters for mind conditioning has been an old practice, which is done by paying for a survey with leading questions embedded in the poll.

Thus, out-of-place items such as asking respondents about term extension being included in the proposed economic Charter change pop up, intending to elicit a negative vote on the need to amend the Constitution.

The pollsters reasoned that they have been employing the same methodology for decades.

Practice, indeed, makes perfect.