Puwersa eyes 8-5 win in Metro

The five million voters of Metro Manila, a traditional bastion of the opposition, will deliver the swing votes that will push at least eight senatorial candidates of the Puwersa ng Masa into the winning circle in tomorrow’s election, the PnM predicted yesterday.

PnM leaders in depressed Metro Manila communities believe that the 8-5 projection is even a conservative estimate as their survey of poor communities showed residents would vote straight opposition.

The votes of PnM candidates are expected to come mainly from the slums and working class districts incensed by the "insults" they had received from the better-off members of society, according to Makati Rep. Agapito Aquino, secretary general of Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino.

"Besides the degradation they have suffered at the hands of elitist politicians, the masa also witnessed for themselves how their rights and freedoms could be trampled by a vindictive administration," Aquino added.

PnM spokesman Crispin Remulla said that the ordinary people resented the overkill that surrounded the arrest of former President Joseph Estrada, resulting in the five-day EDSA III. – Efren Danao