Erap: Surveys don't decide winners

CEBU, Philippines - Even if he seems to be lagging in the surveys, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino standard-bearer and deposed president Joseph Estrada, in a press conference yesterday at the Waterfront Cebu Hotel and Casino, said that not all those who top in the surveys will actually win in the elections.

“I don’t want to pick that early, because I don’t want to be going down (in the latter part of the campaign period),” said Estrada.

Recent surveys have placed Liberal Party standard-bearer Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Nacionalist Party candidate Manny Villar in first and second place, respectively.

And although he has stayed in the third spot since, Estrada said he is slowly catching up.

“Come Election Day, I’m (going to be) number one!” he said.

Estrada said that he likened this trend to what happened in 1998 when he ran for president. Surveys placed him behind candidates Jose de Venecia and Reynato de Villa and he still won.

PMP, according to its campaign chief former senator Ernesto Maceda, reportedly has the fourth and first congressional districts, and the lone district of Lapu-Lapu, on their side.

In Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has endorsed Aquino while in the province Governor Gwen Garcia is support Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro.

If elected, Estrada said he will not let President Gloria Arroyo become the Speaker of the House. Arroyo is running for a congressional seat in her hometown Pampanga.

“Kung ako naging presidente, di sya maging Speaker. Tama na yung siyam na taon nyang pagiging presidente. Pakiusapan ko siya, I’ll use my charm,” Estrada joked.

Arroyo was one of those responsible for Estrada’s short-lived stay in Malacañang, when she, then the vice president, led the People Power revolution that deposed him and catapulted her into power.

Estrada’s four-day campaign in Visayas ended in Cebu yesterday. He first made stopovers in Negros and Bohol to woo the masses there to vote him in the coming May 10 polls. — Liv G. Campo/BRP (THE FREEMAN)