image, issues, and machinery: presidential campaigns in post-1986 philippines
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Kasuya, Y. and Quimpo, N. (Eds.). The Politics of Change in the Philippines. Manila: Anvil, (2010), 114-161This paper will explore the political terrain leading to the 2010 presidential election. It seeks to understand the nature of presidential campaigns in post-authoritarian Philippines. Utilizing survey data, it will trace trends that reflect continuity and change in Filipino voting behavior. Moreover, it will apply the analytical tools of political marketing, such as market segmentation and candidate positioning, in identifying the key elements that contributed to a successful presidential campaign in the three most recent electoral cycles.The paper notes that electoral campaigns in the post-authoritarian period have been waged with competing narratives of reformism, populism and clientelism. The tradition of Filipino-style reformist politics has been revived in the issue-based anti-corruption and good governance campaigns. Meanwhile, continued clientelism and money politics have manifested themselves in the machine-based campaigns that have eroded the gains of reformism. The failure of reform politics to address the problem of poverty, coupled by the ascendancy of the mass media, has fueled the image-based populist campaigns. Ultimately, the rise of media and public opinion polling as influential conduits between national candidates and the electorate underscores the need to find the right mix and astute use of image, issues and machinery.TRANSCRIPT
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Image, issues, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 PhilippinesJulio C. Teehankee
Abstract
This paper will explore the political terrain leading to the 2010
presidential election. It seeks to understand the nature of presidential
campaigns in post-authoritarian Philippines. Utilizing survey data,
it will trace trends that reflect continuity and change in Filipino
voting behavior. Moreover, it will apply the analytical tools of political
marketing, such as market segmentation and candidate positioning,
in identifying the key elements that contributed to a successful
presidential campaign in the three most recent electoral cycles.
The paper notes that electoral campaigns in the post-authoritarian
period have been waged with competing narratives of reformism,
populism and clientelism. The tradition of Filipino-style reformist
politics has been revived in the issue-based anti-corruption and good
governance campaigns. Meanwhile, continued clientelism and money
politics have manifested themselves in the machine-based campaigns
that have eroded the gains of reformism. The failure of reform
politics to address the problem of poverty, coupled by the ascendancy
of the mass media, has fueled the image-based populist campaigns.
Ultimately, the rise of media and public opinion polling as influential
conduits between national candidates and the electorate underscores
the need to find the right mix and astute use of image, issues and
machinery.
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 115
Three presidential elections have been held in the Philippines
since the restoration of democratic rule in 1986. The elections
of 1992 and 1998 have demonstrated the efficacy of a smooth and
legitimate transition of power while the experience of 2004 exposed
the corroding effects of a stolen election. The 2010 presidential
election offers an institutional mechanism for addressing the crisis of
legitimation triggered by the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
While the familiar elements of 1992, 1998, and 2004 are evident
in the upcoming 2010 campaign, new factors are coming into play.
Consequently, the outcome of the 2010 presidential election is
crucial for political change since the “effects a president has on the
benefits enjoyed by the citizenry go far beyond policies: a president
provides moral and social cues to the country . . . elections integrate
the country and provide the common symbols which inform public
discourse” (Popkin, 1991: 3). Ultimately, how a presidential candidate
wages a campaign, gives some cue to how a president will govern
after victory. And in most instances, “an effective president is one who
has projected an effective image of himself [or herself].” (Philippine
Center for Investigative Journalism, 2004: 5)
This paper is an exposition on the nature of presidential
campaigns in the post-Marcos political period. It seeks to provide a
historical review of Filipino voting behavior since 1992 and analyze
the trends that reflect continuity and change in Philippine presidential
elections. The paper will identify the key elements that contributed
to a successful presidential campaign in the three most recent
presidential electoral cycles. Moreover, it also aims to provide a brief
backgrounder for the coming 2010 presidential election.
Presidential campaigns in the Philippines
Despite the growth in the literature on Philippine electoral studies
through the years, only a handful of works have focused specifically
on a scholarly analysis of Filipino voting behavior in presidential
elections. Thus far, only three significant studies have been written
116
on this area in the past 40 years: Hirofumi Ando’s statistical study of
voting patterns in pre-martial law presidential elections published in
1969; Carl Lande’s geographical and statistical analysis of the 1992
presidential election published in 1996; and more recently, Yuko
Kasuya’s groundbreaking work, published in 2009, on the unstable
effects of single-term presidential elections on the post-authoritarian
Filipino party system.1 This paper would like to contribute to the scant
study of Filipino voting behavior by providing a review of presidential
campaigns in the post-authoritarian period from the perspective of
political marketing. It will draw extensively from data culled by Lande’s
1996 study; the comprehensive survey data compiled by the Social
Weather Stations (SWS) since 1992, and Pulse Asia since 2004.
The marketing of the president
Political marketing offers a more pragmatic framework for thinking
about electoral campaigns that “contrasts with the explanatory and
scientific intent of the traditional academic approach to analyzing
political campaigns” (Mauser, 1983: 2). The application of marketing
principles in politics allow for the use of standard marketing tools and
strategies, such as polling research, market segmentation, targeting,
positioning, strategy development and implementation. From this
perspective, “the voter can be analyzed as a consumer in the political
marketplace using the same models and theories in marketing that are
used to study consumers in the commercial marketplace. And both are
1 Ando’s study analyzed the pattern of Filipino voting in presidential and senatorial elections from 1946 to 1965. He utilized three main independent variables in explaining partisan voting: party identification, linguistic affiliation and socio-economic status. Ando identified linguistic affiliation as having the best explanatory power of the three. Lande, on the other hand, investigated the first presidential election in the post-Marcos era. Using statistical techniques, he correlated the result of the 1992 election with 37 demographic variables of the Philippine census. Similar to Ando’s finding, Lande demonstrated that ethno-linguistic division was a highly significant influence on voting behavior at the dawn of the post-authoritarian era. More recently, Kasuya argued that presidential elections in the post-authoritarian period are characterized by an observed instability of inter-party competition. She identified two factors that have contributed to this instability: 1) the increased number of candidates; and 2) the frequent appearance and disappearance of new parties.
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 117
dealing in competitive marketplaces and, as such, need to rely on
similar approaches to winning (but each may have several distinct
options)” (Newman, 1994: 11).
In political marketing terms, there are two crucial factors in
winning votes in an election (see Figure 1). The first is the “push
factor” or the organization that will deliver the votes to a particular
candidate. The other is the “pull factor” or the characteristics that will
attract voters to a candidate. The former is geared towards command
votes, while the latter is aimed at attracting market votes. In applying
these basic marketing principles to political campaigns,
the exchange process centers on a candidate who offers political leadership in exchange for a vote from the citizen. The product in politics is the campaign platform, and marketing would require that research and polling be done to help shape the platform of the candidate. More than the platform itself, the image, or impression, is what the candidate leaves in the mind of the voter. An image is created by the use of visual impressions that are communicated by the candidate’s physical presence, media appearances and experiences and record as a political leader. (Newman, 1994: 10)
Candidate
Pull Factor Push Factor
Figure 1: Pull and Push Factors in Elections
The increased use of political marketing techniques coincides
with the increasing dominance of media, particularly television,
and the growing influence of political consultants in electoral
campaigns around the world. There is a growing trend towards the
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“hybridization” of campaign practices in media-centered democracies,
or “a combination of modern media-centered campaign practices
with traditional organization-based mobilization strategies, relying on
networks of supporters and activists” (Plasser & Plasser, 2002: 349).
This trend in global political campaigning is also evident in Philippine
electoral politics, which continues to operate according to its own
unique traditional dynamics despite the growing influence of media-
driven campaigns (see Figure 2.)
Command votes, bailiwicks and machineries
In Philippine elections, command votes are blocs of votes that are
gathered and delivered through traditional networks such as political
machines and bailiwicks, usually negotiated through leaders and
gatekeepers.2 Bailiwicks (baluarte) refer to the candidate’s natural
sphere of influence, commonly determined by his or her ethno-linguistic,
regional or provincial attachments. The ethno-linguistic vote, as
demonstrated in the past two presidential elections, is the most secure
source of votes for a national candidate. Hence, a national candidate
must immediately factor it in his or her electoral calculations.
2 The standard approach to analyzing Filipino electoral and party politics has been to view power relations within the context of the patron-client factional (pcf) framework. The pcf framework highlights the interpersonal, specifically the familial and patron-client, nature of Philippine politics in a rural society (Lande, 1965; Kerkvliet, 1995). Another study has concluded that elite-dominated factions and their bifurcated inter-familial rivalries have been replaced by local political machines geared towards multi-factionalism and characterized by the alliance of factions into temporary blocs. This trend was further reinforced by the breakdown of the two-party system and the emergence of a multi-party system (Kimura, 1992). The onslaught of economic transformation and increased social mobilization has largely depersonalized patron-client relations in the rural areas. Thus, the reciprocal relationship between leader and followers has become contractual in nature. The potency of the kinship system as an instrument of patronage has diminished and has been replaced with the emergence of machine politics (Kawanaka, 2002).
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 119
Political machines are specialized organizations set up for the
purpose of mobilizing and influencing voter outcome through the
dispensation of social, economic or material benefits. These benefits
are essentially patronage in the form of jobs, services, favors and
money distributed to voters and supporters. There are essentially
three types of political machines in the Philippines – money-based
(organized largely through the use of money), party-based (organized
around local and national political leaders and gatekeepers), and
government-based (organized primarily through access to government
personnel and resources). These three are oftentimes structured on
top of each other.
Market votes, image and issues
Market votes are votes that have to be identified, targeted and
attracted from various segments of the electorate. Similar to the
market, the dominant brand is the most popular one. Hence, market
votes are translated into political support by way of popularity that
is gauged and reflected in regular public opinion surveys. There are
essentially two factors that will draw or repel market votes to a
candidate – image and issues. Image is the general perception by the
Electorate
Comm and Votes Market Votes
Bail iwick Mach ine Popularity
Money Party Government Image Issue
Figure 2: Classification of Votes
Command Votes
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electorate of a particular candidate (whether positive or negative). On
the other hand, issues are the major concerns of the electorate that they
hope the candidates will address when elected into public office.
Candidates usually attempt to address these concerns through their
campaign message and platform. Again, similar to market competition,
candidates have to distinguish themselves from others by projecting
an ideal image and articulating the proper issue or issues in the hope
of gaining popularity in the surveys. Competition among candidates
to capture large chunks of the market vote is usually waged through
the mass media – both print and broadcast. Moreover, “politics is no
longer just addition. In the age of mass media, politics is image-making.
Amplified by television and advertising, a politician’s image in the
public’s collective mind is greater than the sum of his actual attributes,
assets and accomplishment” (Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism, 2004: 5). Candidate images are “cognitive representations
and, to a considerable extent, people’s image of things [that] rules the
way they behave, regardless of how close to reality their images are”
(Laylo & Dayag-Laylo, 1999: 3).
The Institute for Political and Economic Reforms (IPER) conducted
two “psychographic” studies that profiled the voting behavior of the
Filipino electorate in 1995 and 2003. In 1995, the top four factors
for voters choice were: 1) popularity, 2) endorsement of traditional
network and organization, 3) characteristics that can be of benefit to
the voter, and 4) party program. By 2003, the ranking of the factors had
significantly changed into: 1) the benefit factor, 2) political machinery, 3)
popularity, and 4) endorsement of traditional network and organization
(cited in Co et al., 2005).
The decision to mobilize either command or market votes relies
largely on a myriad of factors that include political opportunity,
personal attributes and/or resources available to individual candidates
or political parties. The identification of image, issues and machinery
in this paper refers to the predominant electoral strategy waged by a
presidential campaign. Of course, these categories are not absolute
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 121
and may actually overlap into mixed strategies in actual presidential
campaigns.
Ascendancy of media
Given the physical, financial and logistical impossibility of
personally facing the electorate in a national campaign, media has
emerged as the most efficient and cost-effective way of communicating
with the public. Broadcast media (radio and television) has emerged as
the primary source of news and information for the public. Broadcast
media, with an audience reach in the millions, has supplanted print
media, which is circulated in the hundreds of thousands. However,
while broadcast media has the most audience reach, it tends to
have less substance since everything is reduced into a two- or three-
sentence sound byte. On the other hand, print media offers much
space for elaborate explanations (Carandang, 2004).
Within broadcast media, television has replaced radio as the
source of information for the masses. This trend has been manifested
since the late 1980s when television sets were sold by the hundreds
of thousands. Programming and language shifted from English to
Tagalog to reach the mass audience. By 1995, some 57 percent of
households nationwide had TV sets. This figure has risen to 85 percent,
as of 2001 (Coronel, 2003). In 2001, a 13-year old law banning political
advertising was lifted, thus opening the floodgates of media-related
expenditures for political campaigns. The 2004 elections “marked the
first time that presidential candidates spent more than half of their
total campaign expenses on advertising” (Gloria et al., 2004: 30) (see
Table 1).
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Table 1: Commercial and Political Ads from January to May 2004 (in million pesos)
TV Radio Print Total
Nonpolitical Ads 2,216.25 2,016.55 598.17 4,830.97
Political Ads 1,405.67 530.07 53.66 1,989.40
Source: Gloria et al., 2004
The media has eroded the vote-delivery potential of the political
machinery. Traditionally, a well-oiled machinery was relied upon to
deliver 75 percent of a candidate’s vote. The other 25 percent was
delivered by provincial sorties, posters and propaganda materials.
Presently, this equation has been altered with media accounting for
approximately more than 50 percent of a candidate’s votes. Hence,
the communications group composed of image strategists, pollsters,
advertising specialists and media relations experts have become an
integral and important component of any presidential campaign (Gloria
et al., 2004). The advantage of the incumbent is reflected by the budget
that is made available for media advertisement. In 2004, government
spent a total of P6.1 billion on advertisements for a period of five months
prior to the elections (see Table 2).
Table 2: Government Ads in 2004 (January to May)
Government Ads P1.4 billion
Social Concern Ads P2.8 billion
Political Ads P1.9 billion
Source: Gloria et al., 2004
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 123
The 1992 presidential election
The 1992 election was the first democratic election for the
presidency since 1969. It was also the first to be held after the 1986
transition from authoritarianism to democracy. There were seven
contenders: Fidel Ramos, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Eduardo
Cojuangco, Ramon Mitra, Imelda Marcos, Jovito Salonga and Salvador
Laurel. Of these seven, only four were considered serious contenders.
Former Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos won with 23.6 percent of
the national vote (see Table 3). Former Agrarian Reform Secretary
Miriam Defensor Santiago placed second with 19.7 percent, close
Marcos associate Eduardo Cojuangco placed third with 18.2 percent,
and House Speaker Ramon Mitra placed fourth with 15 percent of the
presidential vote.
Table 3: Results of 1992 Election
Candidate Party Votes %
Fidel V. Ramos Lakas NUCD 5,342,521 23.6
Miriam Defensor Santiago
People’s Reform Party 4,468,173 19.7
Eduardo Cojuangco Nationalist People’s Coalition
4,116,376 18.2
Ramon Mitra Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino
3,316,661 14.6
Imelda Romualdez Marcos
Kilusang Bagong Lipunan 2,338,294 10.3
Jovito Salonga Liberal Party 2,302,124 10.2
Salvador H. Laurel Nacionalista Party 770,046 3.4
Source: Commission on Elections, 1992
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Reformism and issue-based campaigns
Ramos consistently topped the Social Weather Stations (SWS)
surveys from July 1991 to early February 1992 (see Table 4). His closest
rival, Miriam Defensor Santiago, only caught up with him in April 1992,
but her lead was not statistically significant. Ramos’ support was evenly
distributed by age, class, education and location (Mangahas, 1994). He
also capitalized on his role in the 1986 “People Power” revolution and
his staunch defense of the Aquino administration from seven coup
attempts. Consistent with this image, he encapsulated his campaign
message into the slogan – “people’s empowerment”.
Table 4: SWS National Surveys: July 1991 – April 1992
July 1991 November 1991 February 1992 April 1992
1 Ramos 2 Salonga3-4 Estrada & Santiago 5 Laurel6-7 Mitra & Pimentel 8 Cojuangco
1 Ramos2-3 Estrada & Santiago 4 Salonga 5 Mitra 6 Laurel7-8 Fernan & Cojuangco
1 Ramos2 Santiago
3-4 Mitra & Estrada
5 Cojuangco6 Marcos7 Salonga8 Laurel
Undecided 17%
1-2 Santiago & Ramos
3 Cojuangco4-6 Mitra &
Salonga7 Laurel
Undecided 26%
Note: SWS utilized several survey techniques, hence only the rankings can be compared.
Source: Posadas & Sandoval, 1992
Santiago waged a single-issue campaign against corruption and
captured the support of the youth through her unusual image. She
also won the support of the middle class, educated and urban voters
(Mangahas, 1994). Her image was the antithesis of Cory Aquino’s. While
Cory was pensive, dignified and passive, Miriam was shrill, acerbic and
aggressive. This image, however, was used by her opponents to portray
her as unstable and possibly disturbed.
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 125
Notwithstanding his national prominence as House Speaker, Mitra
did not rate well in the SWS surveys. He ranked between 6th to 7th in
July 1991, 5th place in November 1991, between 3rd and 4th in February
1992, and between 4th and 6th in April 1992. Ironically, his main power
base – the speakership of the lower house – was also his greatest
liability. The position reinforced his image as a “traditional politician”
or “trapo”. The public had an adverse perception of the House of
Representatives because of a number of scandals that involved its
members. The Speaker himself was implicated in the misuse of the
House printing facilities to support his presidential campaign (Lande,
1996).
Businessman Eduardo Cojuangco languished at the tail end
of the surveys but managed to rise from 8th place in July 1991 to
between 7th and 8th place in November 1991, to 5th place in February
1992, and finally landing oin 3rd place in April 1992. While his image
handlers highlighted his alleged business acumen, he was hounded
by his close association with the ousted dictator and his role in the
controversial coconut levy imposed on coconut farmers by the Marcos
administration. With such an image, his over-all negatives outweighed
his positives.
Rise of the machines
Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. had the most organized party machinery
– the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP). On the eve of the 1992
elections, the LDP boasted that it had the support of 150 out of 200
congressmen, 50 out of 73 governors, 35 out of 60 city mayors, 1,100
out of 1,532 municipal mayors and 70 percent of barangay officials
(De Castro, 1992). In addition, Mitra was publicly endorsed by the
influential Roman Catholic Archbishop, Jaime Cardinal Sin.
On the other hand, Eduardo Cojuangco attempted to replicate
the national pyramidical political machinery of Ferdinand Marcos
by designating a loyal deputy (postes) in every geographical region.
In addition, he utilized his vast financial resources to set up his
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party machinery. However, he was outspent by Ramos at the tail end
of the campaign. Some of the postes, particularly in Northwestern,
Northeastern and Central Luzon, were effective in delivering the bulk
of Cojuangco’s votes (Lande, 1996). Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) Bishop
Eraño Manalo endorsed his candidacy.3 Except for his home province
of Tarlac, Cojuangco did not benefit much from Tagalog-speaking
provinces. He, however, drew much support from the Ilocano-speaking
provinces, given his close association with former President Marcos.
His combined support from Ilocano and Tagalog provinces was greater,
on the average, than the support he received in provinces dominated by
other language groups (Lande, 1996) (see Appendix 1).
Unlike the other presidential candidates, Mitra did not have a large
linguistic-regional base of his own; he got his strongest support from
the thinly-populated island and frontier provinces (Siquijor, Camiguin,
Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Romblon) that resemble his native Palawan, and
the thinly-populated highlands (Cordillera region) where he grew up
(Lande, 1996). He got additional votes from the populous Cebuano-
speaking Central Visayan provinces, the home of his vice-presidential
running-mate former Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan. This advantage,
however, was limited because of the equally strong support given by the
region to Ramos’ vice presidentvice-presidential running-mate, Cebu
Governor Lito Osmeña (Lande, 1996).
Ramos, a non-politician, entered and lost the Laban ng
Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) primaries to Mitra. He then organized
his own political party, the Lakas NUCD, and won the endorsement of
President Aquino. This endorsement translated to access to government
resources through the extra-legal pre-election release of between P600
million to P1.5 billion National Aid to Local Government Units (NALGU)
funds to localities whose leaders campaigned for Ramos (Lande, 1996).
In addition, the LDP charged that portions of an estimated P100 million
3 The Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) is a Christian sect founded by former Seventh Day Adventist member Felix Manalo in 1914. The sect grew in numbers and became very influential in local and national politics as a result of its practice of block voting.
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 127
fund for the Rebel Returnee Program were distributed to local officials
supportive of the Ramos campaign (Balgos, 1998).
Ramos, a protestant and only the second non-Catholic to seek
the presidency, secured the endorsement of two tightly-knit religious
organizations – the El Shaddai of Brother Mike Velarde and Jesus is
Lord of Brother Eddie Villanueva. In terms of regional strength, he
got the bulk of his support from the country’s most heavily populated
regions: Central Luzon and the Cebuano-speaking areas of the Visayas
and Mindanao. In addition, he was exceptionally strong in two
provinces with very large populations, Pangasinan and Cebu (Lande,
1996) (see Appendix 1).
Santiago did not have a political machinery to support her
candidacy. Her People’s Reform Party had no congressional or local
candidates and it had only a partial senatorial slate, which included
five retired generals. It was only in the latter part of the campaign
that she was able to convince Ramon Magsaysay Jr. to be her vice-
presidential running-mate. What she lacked in traditional political
machinery, she made up for with a non-traditional campaign powered
largely by unpaid volunteers, made up of students and civic leaders
(Lande, 1996).
Santiago won in two of the country’s most densely populated
regions: the National Capital Region and its surrounding semi-
urban provinces, and Western Visayas, particularly vote-rich Negros
Occidental and Iloilo (Lande, 1996). While she topped most media and
campus surveys, the SWS surveys from July 1991 to early February
1992 had her running second to Ramos. By April 1992, she was able
to overtake Ramos, but her lead was not statistically significant
(Mangahas, 1994).
Keys to success
In 1992, Ramos consistently topped the surveys, articulated the
proper issue (people’s empowerment) consistent with his image
as one of the EDSA heroes, and had government resources at his
128
disposal to by-pass the traditional party machinery. The phenomenal
performance of Santiago revealed the potential of cultivating the right
image and articulating hot-button issues in attracting the market votes.
However, her campaign suffered from a lack of machinery to protect
her votes.
The tight competition between Ramos and Santiago served to
highlight the important role of ethno-linguistic bailiwicks in a close
election. Nearly ten percent of Ramos’s total tally came from his native
Pangasinan, while the bulk of Santiago’s votes came from the Ilonggo-
speaking provinces. Hence, in a close election, the margin could be
swung according to regional and linguistic bases (Coronel, 2003) (see
Appendix 1).
An issue-focused campaign without the corresponding positive
image and credible machinery can also prove to be disastrous. Jovito
Salonga articulated nationalist and progressive issues and was favored
by a segment of the educated middle class but he suffered from an
image problem due to his age. Both Mitra and Cojuangco relied on their
respective machineries to deliver command votes: Mitra’s machine was
largely party-based, while Cojuangco’s was money-based. The two,
however, suffered from extremely negative images: Cojuangco as the
Marcos crony, and Mitra the trapo.
Mo ney Party Image Issue s
Command Votes Market V otes
Santiago
Salonga Mitra
Ramos
Cojuangco
Gover nment
Market Votes
Figure 3: 1992 Candidate Positioning
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 129
The 1998 presidential election
The second presidential election saw an unprecedented number
of presidential candidates in Philippine political history (see Table 5).
The eleven candidates who competed for the presidency included:
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., Vice-President Joseph Estrada, Senator
Raul Roco, former Cebu Governor Lito Osmeña, Manila Mayor Alfredo
Lim, Defense Secretary Renato de Villa, Senator Miriam Defensor
Santiago, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, Santiago Dumlao and Manuel
Morato. Out of this number, there was one frontrunner and three
serious challengers.
Table 5: Results of 1998 Election
Presidential Candidate Party Votes %
Joseph E. Estrada LAMMP 10,722,295 39.9
Jose C. de Venecia Jr. Lakas NUCD-UMDP
4,268,483 15.9
Raul S. Roco Aksyon Demokratiko
3,720,212 13.8
Emilio R. Osmeña PROMDI 3,347,631 12.4
Alfredo S. Lim LP 2,344,362 8.7
Renato S. de Villa Reporma-LM 1,308,352 4.9
Miriam Defensor Santiago PRP 797,206 3.0
Juan Ponce Enrile Independent 343,139 1.3
Santiago F. Dumlao KPP 32,212 0.1
Manuel L. Morato Partido ng Bansang Marangal
18,644 0.1
Source: Commission on Elections, 1998
Vice-President Joseph Estrada won the presidency with 39.9
percent of the vote. House Speaker Jose de Venecia placed second
130
with 15.9 percent ; Senator Raul Roco was on third place with 13.8
percent ; and Emilio “Lito” Osmeña placed fourth with 11 percent of
the national vote.
Populist onslaught
Estrada’s popularity was formidable; his support from the masa
was solid. His popularity compensated for the relative handicap of
his LAMMP coalition vis-à-vis the administration Lakas party. Estrada
dominated the SWS surveys throughout the campaign period. From
January to May 1998, he did not relinquish the top position in the
opinion polls (see Table 6). Although rejected by a small but significant
ABC or middle-to-upper classes, Estrada nevertheless won as a result
of mass support from the D and E classes – the so-called masa vote.
The 1998 election was the first time that the masa came out solidly
behind a single candidate. Estrada captured 38 percent of the class D
and 48 percent of the class E votes (Mangahas, 1998).
The Estrada campaign will be remembered for one of the most
successful campaign slogans in the history of Philippine presidential
campaigns – Erap para sa mahirap (Erap for the poor). The slogan did
not only capture the core message and issue of the Estrada campaign,
it was also in synch with his image as an idol of the masses. He won
the endorsement of the Iglesia ni Cristo, and SWS exit polls indicated
that 81 percent of INC members voted solidly for him. Estada was
also endorsed by El Shaddai; however, only 39 percent of its members
actually voted for him (Mangahas, 1998) (see Appendix 4).
Estrada was subjected to a barrage of negative attacks revolving
around his character and competence. His opponents raised the issue
of morality, particularly regarding his mistresses, his drinking sprees
and gambling habit. His lack of advanced education was also used to
cast doubt on his competence. While these allegations had some basis
in fact, his popularity did not wane. His media strategists even used the
“Erap jokes” that were circulating to further endear him to the masses.
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 131
Table 6: SWS National Surveys: January 1998-May 1998
Sep96
Dec96
Apr97
Sep97
Jan 98
Feb 98
Mar 98
Apr 98
May 98
Estrada 19 17 23 19 28 28 28 30 33
De Venecia 1 2 5 3 11 12 14 12 15
Roco 3 6 5 9 10 9 11 10 11
Osmeña - - - 3 17 13 9 13 11
Lim - - - - 14 14 14 13 10
De Villa 1 0.5 3 4 7 6 5 5 6
Arroyo 14 17 22 19 - - - - -
Enrile - - - - - 0.9 2 2 3
Santiago 18 14 13 13 9 5 7 4 2
Marcos - - - - - 2 2 2 0.3
Dumlao - - - - - 0.1 0.4 0.3 0.3
Morato - - - - - 0.6 0.9 0.2 0.2
Undecided 0 1 3 14 4 10 7 9 9
Source: Mangahas, 1998
De Venecia struggled to catch up with Estrada’s popularity but he
only placed fourth in January and February; tied for second place with
Alfredo Lim in March; fell to third place in April, and regained second
place in May. On the eve of the elections, he was behind Estrada by 18
percentage points, or roughly 4.5 million votes. Like Mitra in 1992, de
Venecia suffered from a negative trapo image reinforced by his role
as House Speaker.
Roco was popular among women voters and the youth, but he
was eventually outdone by Estrada, even among these sectors. Hence,
socioeconomic class, age and gender did not matter much in the 1998
132
elections (Mangahas, 1998) (see Appendix 5). Brilliant and articulate,
Roco initially projected himself as an incarnation of Ninoy Aquino. He
was adept at discussing and debating policy issues, but was oftentimes
perceived as flowery in delivery and too esoteric for the layperson.
In terms of popularity, as reflected in the SWS surveys, Osmeña
consistently placed a far second to Estrada in the early part of the
campaign period. He fared well in the surveys with strong name
recognition – his family has been active in local and national politics
since the American colonial period. His grandfather, Sergio Sr., had
been a president of the Republic; his uncle, Sergio Jr., had been a
senator and a presidential candidate; his estranged brother, Sonny,
was a long-time senator; his cousin, Sergio III, was also a senator;
and another cousin, Tomas, was mayor of Cebu. On top of his strong
regional backing and wide name recognition, Osmeña ran a single-issue
campaign that resonated with the electorate. His advocacy of greater
decentralization for local government units was a popular issue in the
Visayas and Mindanao where the electorate have strong animosity
against the dominant centralism of “Imperial Manila” (see Appendix
2).
Splintering the reformist votes
Estrada’s machinery was provided largely by the Laban ng
Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), which coalesced with the Nationalist
People’s Coalition (NPC), and his own party Partido ng Masang
Pilipino (PMP). The coalition Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino
(LAMMP) served to supplement his popularity with the electorate.
Estrada’s bailiwick was concentrated in the Tagalog-speaking provinces
of Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, Quezon and Bulacan. Regionally, he was strong
in Regions 1 and 2 (Ilocos and Cagayan Valley), Region 3 (Central Luzon),
Region 4 (Southern Tagalog), Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), Regions 9 and
12 (Western and Central Mindanao), Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) and
Region 11 (Southern Mindanao) (Laquian, 1998). In spite of the fact that
he came from San Juan, a small municipality in Metro Manila, Estrada
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 133
enjoyed wide margins throughout the country. He even encroached
on the regional bailiwicks of his rivals (Coronel, 2003).
De Venecia had the advantage of money and machinery built around
the administration party, Lakas NUCD-UMDP, whose membership
included majority of the congressmen, governors, mayors and local
officials in the country. He also won the endorsement of President
Ramos after a grueling competition with Defense Secretary Renato de
Villa in the Lakas primaries. Soon after, he was endorsed by the Jesus
is Lord of Brother Eddie Villanueva and the Jesus Miracle Crusade of
Brother Wilde Almeda (see Appendix 3). The main base of support for
de Venecia was his home province – vote-rich Pangasinan. He was
also particularly strong in Northern Luzon (see Appendix 2).
Roco placed third despite a lack of money and machinery. Like
Santiago in 1992, he ran an alternative grassroots campaign anchored
on the miniscule party he founded – Aksyon Demokratiko. Aside from
an unknown vice-presidential candidate, Inday Santiago, his party did
not field a national or local slate of candidates. Roco’s votes came
primarily from his bailiwick – the Bicol Region. He also performed
strongly in the National Capital Region (see Appendix 2). Roco
dominated the votes among the ABC classes but fared poorly among
the D and E (see Appendix 4).
Osmeña ran for president under his own provincial-based party
– the Probinsya Muna Development Initiative (PROMDI). He got the
most number of votes in Cebu, where he had served as governor. He
also did well in the nearby Cebuano-speaking areas in the Visayas
and Mindanao where he repeated his strong performance in 1992 as
a vice-presidential candidate. His campaign reflected the continued
potency of ethno-linguistic ties as the most dependable source of
command votes in a national election.
Keys to success
In 1998, Estrada’s popularity as an actor was reinforced by his
core message (Erap para sa Mahirap), his single-issue campaign,
134
which was consistent with his image, and his machinery that was largely
provided by the LDP and NPC. He managed to secure his frontrunner
position throughout the campaign, which projected invincibility and
resulted in a bandwagon effect. De Venecia had the advantage of
having a well-financed party machinery in the form of the monolithic
administration party Lakas NUCD-UMDP, and the endorsement of
President Ramos which translated into access to government resources.
However, like Mitra in 1992, he was very unpopular and suffered from a
negative trapo image.
Command Votes Market V otes
Image Issues Mo ney Party Gover nment
Estrada De Venecia
Roco
Osme ña
Lim
De Villa
Figure 4: 1998 Candidate Positioning
Roco ran a strong alternative grassroots campaign and captured a
portion of the market votes, particularly among the middle class, youth
and women. But as in the “Miriam phenomenon” in 1992, his lack of
machinery weighed down his chances of winning the election. Osmeña’s
campaign revealed the continuing potency of ethno-linguistic ties as
the most dependable source of command votes in a national election.
This was also evident in the strong support from regional bailiwicks
received by de Venecia from Pangasinan and Roco from Bicol. However,
Estrada’s encroachment in his rivals’ bailiwicks revealed that “class
Market Votes
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 135
loyalties could overcome regional and linguistic ones” (Coronel, 2003:
10).
The 2004 presidential election
In 2004, after a tumultuous three-and-a-half years of completing
the unfinished term of ousted President Joseph Estrada, President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sought her own electoral mandate.
Notwithstanding her earlier promise not to seek election, she was
determined to win a full six-year term. Her candidacy served as
a referendum on her administration’s achievements and failures.
There were six candidates for the 2004 presidential elections, namely
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, film legend Fernando Poe Jr.,
former Education Secretary Raul Roco, Senator Panfilo Lacson,
Brother Eddie Villanueva and Eddie Gil. Of the six candidates,
two were serious frontrunners, three were spoilers, and one was a
nuisance candidate. The incumbent won by a margin of 3.4 percent of
the total votes cast or an equivalent of 1,123,576 votes (see Table 7).
Table 7: Results of the 2004 Presidential Election
Candidate Party Votes %
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo K4 12,905,808 39.9
Fernando Poe Jr. KNP 11,782,232 36.5
Panfilo Lacson Independent 3,510,762 10.9
Raul Roco Alyansa ng Pag-asa 2,082,762 6.4
Eduardo Villanueva Bangon 1,988,218 6.2
Total 32,269,782 100
Source: Commission on Elections, 2004
Power of the incumbent
The last time that an incumbent president was re-elected in the
Philippines was in 1969 when Ferdinand Marcos defeated Sergio
136
Osmeña Jr. It would also be the last democratically-held presidential
election in the Third Philippine Republic. Marcos’s attempt to force
an electoral mandate in the 1986 snap presidential election unleashed
the first “people power” uprising. The 2004 election was only the third
time in Philippine political history that a former vice-president who
completed an unfinished term of a predecessor, sought a full mandate
as president. The first time was the controversial victory of Elpidio
Quirino in the 1949 presidential election that nearly resulted in an
uprising by disgruntled followers of defeated candidate Jose P. Laurel
Sr. In 1953, Quirino’s blatant attempt at re-election was thwarted by
a “reformist-populist” candidate, Ramon Magsaysay (Hedman & Sidel,
2000).
Since she assumed office after EDSA 2, President Arroyo has
suffered from an image problem that did not disappear after several
image makeovers. Consequently, she campaigned against herself “on
issues like the vows she broke, the promises she has yet to fulfill, her
flip-flops that need more explaining, and her husband that many say has
been her heaviest political baggage” (Paez, 2004: 26).
The President relied on three parallel machineries to carry her to
victory. The first was the government bureaucracy, an advantage of
incumbency. The second was her party machinery composed of the
ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), in coalition
with the Liberal Party, a faction of the Nationalist People’s Coalition and
the miniscule People’s Reform Party. The third was a network of parallel
support groups organized under the control of the First Gentleman Jose
Miguel Arroyo, the president’s brother Diosdado Macapagal Jr., and the
seasoned political operator – Ronaldo Puno.
Lakas stalwarts and strategists had learned the lessons of the failed
1998 bid of Speaker de Venecia. Despite the advantage of government-
based and party-based machineries, great efforts were made to
organize parallel campaign organizations, in case the party machinery
failed again. In addition, the President was a hardworking and driven
campaigner. She was a veteran of three grueling national elections:
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 137
two for the senate and one for vice president. She got the highest
number of votes on her second run for the senate in 1995, and when
she won the vice presidency in 1998. Aside from Pampanga, she also
counted Bacolod, Negros Occidental (her husband’s province) and
Iligan, Lanao del Norte (her mother’s province) as her bailiwicks. In
successive SWS surveys, she consistently scored high in the Visayas,
where she outranked Fernando Poe Jr. She eventually consolidated
her ethno-linguistic base (i.e. Cebuano and Ilonggo) in the Visayas
and Mindanao to counter Poe’s dominance in Luzon (see Appendix
6).
In terms of presidential preference, Arroyo consistently trailed
behind other candidates. Before her October 2003 announcement
that she would seek election, she consistently trailed behind Senators
Noli de Castro and Raul Roco, except in June of the same year when
she placed first with 20 percentage points in the SWS survey. Her
numbers did not pick up after her October announcement. It was only
in January 2004 that she overtook Roco with 27 percentage points,
and placed second to Fernando Poe Jr. She benefited largely from
the decision of survey frontrunner Noli de Castro to withdraw and
become her vice-presidential candidate. By February 2004, she had
become competitive, rising two percentage points and narrowing her
margin with Poe in the SWS survey (see Table 8).
138
Table 8: SWS National Surveys: August 2003 – May 2004
Dec 02
May - Jun 03
Jun 03
Aug03
Sep 03
Nov 03
Jan04
Jan - Feb
04
Feb04
Mar 04
Mar 04
Apr 04
May 04
Arroyo 13 15 20 16 17 17 26.5 28.7 31.8 32.9 31.4 35.3 37
Poe 21 16 15 12 14 25 36.3 37.5 30.5 34.9 32.0 30.8 30
Roco 24 19 19 18 20 18 19.2 17.4 17.9 13.1 15.0 8.4 6
Lacson 6 12 11 11 10 10 11.5 8.4 11.4 11.5 11.2 10.6 11
De Castro 19 22 18 20 28 24 - - - - - - -
Villanueva - - - - - - 1.0 1.7 1.8 2.4 2.8 4.0 4
Gil - - - - - - 0.1 0.2 0.03 0.5 - 0.05 0.3
Others 12 10 15 15 8 - - - - - - - -
Undecided 6 5 3 4 4 6 5.4 6.1 6.6 4.6 7.6 10.9 12
Source: Social Weather Stations, 2004
She managed a statistical tie with Poe in the Pulse Asia and SWS
surveys in that period of time. Compared with Poe, Arroyo gradually
consolidated her hold on the ABC class and made inroads in the D class
(see Table 9 and Appendix 8).
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 139
Table 9: Pulse Asia Voter Preference by Socioeconomic Class, in Percent
Candidate/Sector
Nov ‘03(1,200)
Jan ‘04(1,800)
Feb ‘04(1,800)
Mar ‘04(4,800)
Apr ‘04(1,800)
Arroyo, G.M.ABC
DE
212732
283630
333329
323432
333935
Poe, F. Jr.ABC
DE
152732
253343
233039
222741
182841
Lacson, P.ABC
DE
171210
1488
141110
13116
19127
Roco, RABC
DE
413224
252016
171713
191310
1275
Villanueva, E.
ABCDE
---
411
212
443
762
Undecided/None/NR
ABCDE
622
533
1187
6128
178
Source: Gloria et al., 2004
Populism falters
After 282 movies and 48 years as the undisputed box-office king
of Philippine cinema, Fernando Poe Jr. (popularly known as FPJ)
performed the greatest role of his life by running for the presidency
and following in the footsteps of his best friend, Joseph Estrada.
His candidacy was borne out of the efforts of several sectoral and
140
volunteer groups that urged him to run. His main political vehicle was
the hastily-formed coalition – the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino
(KNP) – composed of the LDP, Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas
ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), and the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).
FPJ’s electoral strength was both regional and class-based. In
Luzon, FPJ relied on his home province of Pangasinan as his major
bailiwick. He was also particularly strong in Mindanao where he had
a strong following among the Muslim communities. His campaign
hoped to capture the class D and E votes that delivered the presidency
to Estrada in 1998. FPJ’s survey numbers surged initially despite his
late declaration to run for the presidency. However, a series of negative
news stories about him, including a disqualification case filed at the
Supreme Court, succeeded in halting his upward momentum. Moreover,
FPJ’s refusal to articulate his platform or participate in debates fatally
impaired his candidacy. His public appearances were limited to smiling,
waving and saluting to the crowd, and his speeches were limited to one-
liners, which were often taken from his movies.
Despite the huge number of fans who attended his campaign
sorties, the failure of FPJ to mount an insurmountable lead in the
presidential surveys prevented most local politicians from endorsing
his candidacy and discouraged political financiers from infusing funds
into his campaign. In the end, he lost his hold on his core demographic
base – the class D and E votes. Ironically, he captured the youth vote,
but majority of the older voters supported Arroyo (see Appendix 9).
His campaign was also saddled by internal bickering among the
parties and organizations within the opposition coalition. His failure
to unite with recalcitrant opposition candidate Panfilo Lacson further
weakened the political opposition, weighed down his campaign
message of “national unity” and resulted in the withdrawal of support
of the influential Iglesia ni Cristo. In the end, the opposition failed to
provide the political vehicle for the charismatic Poe.
Unlike President Estrada’s Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino
(LAMMP) coalition in 1998, which managed to assemble the requisite
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 141
political machinery to convert popularity into votes and have them
counted, the KNP, Poe’s coalition in 2004, fielded only 26 candidates
out of 211 seats (12 percent) for the House of Representatives
and eight candidates for 76 (10 percent) provincial governor seats
(Doronila, 2004).
Keys to Success
Despite serious charges raised by the opposition regarding
the conduct and outcome of the 2004 presidential election, Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo managed to claim a new mandate and was
proclaimed victorious by Congress. On March 29, 2005, the Supreme
Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), dismissed
the election protest filed by defeated opposition candidate Fernando
Poe Jr. “on the ground that no real party in interest has come forward
within the period allowed by law, to intervene in this case or be
substituted for the deceased protestant” (Clapano, 2005). Poe had
died from a stroke on December 14, 2004, with the resolution of his
election protest still pending. The PET dismissed the request of his
widow, Susan Roces, to substitute for her deceased husband since
the rules allowed only the registered candidates who obtained the
second and third highest votes for the presidency to file an election
protest.
The victory of President Arroyo and her running mate, Senator
Noli de Castro, was the first time a presidential and vice-presidential
ticket was not split in the three elections since 1992. The immensely
popular former television newscaster and senator, Noli de Castro,
defeated equally popular fellow newscaster and senator, Loren
Legarda. De Castro, whose name was earlier floated as a presidential
contender, contributed much to the victory of Arroyo in terms of vote
transferability, as the administration’s internal survey indicated that
an estimated 70 percent of those who would vote for de Castro would
also vote for Arroyo. The inclusion of de Castro in the president’s
ticket also allowed Arroyo to communicate with the poor, who
142
comprised the bulk of the electorate and the natural constituency of
Poe (Bergonia, 2004; Gloria et al., 2004).
Command Votes Market Votes
Party Government Money Issues Image
Arroyo Poe
Lacson Roco
Villanueva
Figure 5: 2004 Candidate Positioning
Arroyo’s victory was also the first time in Philippine history that
a presidential candidate won the election by winning the southern
islands of Visayas and Mindanao but losing in the traditional locus of
political power – the northern island of Luzon. Despite the fact that
Luzon was Arroyo’s natural bailiwick, majority of its voters indicated
their preference for Poe in successive surveys conducted by SWS and
Pulse Asia prior to the election. Given her political weakness in Luzon,
she relied on the political clans and bosses in the Visayas and Mindanao
to deliver the votes for her (De Castro, 2004). The administration also
succeeded in getting the support of seven out of ten governors in vote-
rich provinces (Go, 2004).
The President’s candidacy was reinforced by the religious command
votes that were delivered by the Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai (see
Appendix 7). According to estimates, each religious group can deliver
between two to four million votes. In 1998, Erap Estrada got the
endorsement of the Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai. The 1998 SWS
exit polls indicated that 81 percent of INC members voted solidly for
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 143
Estrada. The El Shaddai also endorsed Estrada, but only 39 percent
of its members actually voted for him (Mangahas, 1998).
The 2010 Presidential Election
The allegation of massive fraud committed by the administration
during the 2004 election was reinforced in June 2005 with the sudden
and mysterious release of wire-tapped conversations between
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioner Virgilio
Garcillano and various personalities led by President Arroyo. The
taped conversations, which allegedly took place from May 17 to June
18, 2004, exposed the cabal of political operators who tampered
with votes upon orders of Garcillano. While the President admitted
to being one of the voices in the taped conversations, she denied
any wrongdoing. Nonetheless, she profusely apologized for the
impropriety of her “lapse in judgment”.
The 2010 presidential election will serve as a referendum on
the nine-year rule of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It will also be an
opportunity to repair the political institutions damaged by the
legitimation crisis that emerged from the 2004 election. Contested
elections have the effect of weakening legitimacy since they diminish
the belief in democratic procedures as a source of political authority.
Given the impending end of Arroyo’s term of office, and her failure
to extend it by constitutional revision, several political personalities
have projected themselves to be her possible successor in the next
round of presidential elections.
Air and ground war
Fresh from getting the highest number of votes in the 2007
senatorial elections, Loren Legarda topped the first survey on possible
presidential candidates for 2010 conducted that year. Succeeding
surveys showed Vice-President de Castro as the most preferred
choice to succeed President Arroyo. Between September 2007 and
June 2009, however, preparations for the 2010 electoral campaign
144
shifted to the mobilization of party-based local machineries (“ground
war”) and the early saturation of radio and television with expensive
political advertisements (“air war”). Two potential candidates strongly
competed in this regard: Senators Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and Manuel
“Manny” Villar Jr. The former is the grandson of the late president and
Liberal Party (LP) founder Manuel Roxas; while the latter is the steward
of the resurgent Nacionalista Party (NP). Aside from leading the two
oldest parties in the Philippines, both are among the richest legislators
in Congress. Roxas is a scion of the Araneta clan – owners of the Araneta
Commercial Center in Cubao; while Villar is a self-made billionaire who
made his money developing mass housing projects (Lopez, 2007).
According to Nielsen Media Research, in the first three months of
2009, three possible candidates had already spent a total of P230 million in
televised “advocacy ads”. The three are Roxas (P140 million), Villar (P80
million), and Legarda (P10 million). The cost of air time at peak viewing
hours on the two major television networks (GMA 7 and ABS-CBN 2)
can be as much as P475,000 per 30 seconds. (Sisante et al., 2009). By the
second quarter of 2009, Villar had overtaken Roxas in ad placements.
According to Nielsen, Villar logged a total of 603 minutes or 10.5 hours
of television advertisements in the first half of 2009 accounting for 45
percent of the total 1,345 minutes of infomercials during the period.
He was followed by Roxas with 444 minutes of airtime; Makati Mayor
Jejomar Binay with 166 minutes, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro
with 70 minutes, evangelist Eddie Villanueva with 33 minutes and Sen.
Panfilo Lacson with 30 minutes (Daily Tribune, 2009).
The barrage of television advertisements pushed Villar’s survey
ranking. In May, he reached a statistical tie with de Castro, the
consistent survey leader , and by June 2009, had taken the lead in the
SWS survey. Even as he competed tightly with Villar in media spending,
Roxas failed to obtain the same push in his survey rankings. On the
other hand, Legarda’s survey numbers plummeted after her political
advertisements stopped airing on the major television networks. Vice-
President de Castro managed to compete in media exposure through
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 145
his government-sponsored infomercials promoting housing loans.
However, his later actions indicated his disinterest in either pursuing
the presidency or running for re-election as vice-president. His non-
commitment paved the way for the selection of the relatively unknown
Gilbert Teodoro as the standard bearer of the recently merged Lakas-
CMD and Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) (see Table 10).
Table 10: SWS National Surveys: September 2007 – June 2009
Sep07
Dec07
Mar 08
Jun 08
Sep 08
Dec 08
Feb 09
May 09
Jun 09
Sep09
Aquino - - - - - - - - - 60
De Castro 25 30 35 31 29 31 27 21 19 8
Villar 18 27 17 25 28 27 26 29 33 37
Estrada 5 9 14 11 13 11 13 13 25 18
Legarda 44 23 30 26 26 28 25 14 15 5
Roxas 9 20 16 13 13 10 15 18 20 12
Escudero 13 15 19 14 16 19 23 15 20 15
Lacson 18 13 12 16 17 14 14 12 7 2
Villanueva 0.5 0.4 0.04 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.04 0.7 0.8 1
Binay 0.3 1 0.4 0.2 0.3 2 1 2 4 2
Fernando 0.2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1
Teodoro - - - - - 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.8 4
Others 15.6 14.7 9.3 8.2 10.5 4.74 8 10.1 5.7 0.5
Don’t Know 12 12 11 15 9 7 13 20 18 6
None 6 5 5 8 9 12 7 9 - 4
Source: Social Weather Stations, 2009
146
Revival of reformism
At the outset, it became apparent that the 2010 electoral battle was
going to be waged in terms of an expensive media war and a pitched
battle for the mobilization of local political machineries. However, the
massive outpouring of national grief over the death of former President
and democracy icon Corazon C. Aquino on August 1, 2009 reawakened
a sense of collective nostalgia for the democratic struggle against
the Marcos dictatorship. Similar to the events of 1983 after Senator
Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was assassinated, thousands representing
a cross-section of Philippine society – from street vendors to middle-
aged professionals and their children – literally lined up in the streets of
Manila to pay their last respects to the former president. The tremendous
national grief, coupled with deep frustration over the scandal-ridden
Arroyo administration, rekindled the flames of reformist aspirations.
Suddenly, national attention shifted to Aquino’s son, Senator
Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, as the bearer of the reformist struggle.
In a repeat of his mother’s path to the presidency, several individuals
and private organizations launched a signature drive urging the young
Aquino to consider running for president under the Liberal Party in 2010.
Recognizing the signs of the times, Mar Roxas graciously withdrew
his presidential candidacy in favor of Aquino. His act – similar to the
withdrawal of Salvador “Doy” Laurel in favor of Cory Aquino – further
reinforced the historical parallelisms with the 1986 campaign for the
snap presidential election. A special SWS survey covering the vote-
rich Lingayen-Lucena corridor was commissioned in September 2009
to test the potentials of a Noynoy candidacy. The poll was taken a day
after Roxas’ withdrawal but weeks before Aquino’s declaration that he
would seek the presidency (see Table 11).
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 147
Table 11: SWS Survey on Presidential Preferences for 2010 Election: Lingayen-Lucena Corridor (September 2009)
Total NCR PangasinanRegion
IIIRegion
IV-A
Benigno Simeon Aquino III 50 50 48 49 51
Manuel Villar Jr. 14 14 22 15 12
Joseph Estrada 13 15 5 14 13
Francis Escudero 12 14 10 9 12
Noli De Castro 7 5 14 8 6
Don’t Know 2 1 0 1 3
None 1 1 1 1 2
Source: Social Weather Stations, 2009
According to Mahar Mangahas (2009: 15), the Lingayen-Lucena
corridor “extending from Metro Manila to the north into Central Luzon
and up to Pangasinan, and to the south into Southern Tagalog provinces
on Luzon island, is where presidential races have traditionally been
won, with the notable exception of the 2004 election”. In the Lingayan-
Lucena corridor, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of the national
vote. the special survey had Noynoy scoring a phenomenal 50 percent
over his closest rivals.
The question of whether the “Noynoy phenomenon” was limited
to Manila and Luzon was answered by the result of the 3rd Quarter
regular SWS survey (see Table 9) taken from September 18 to 21,
2009, in which Aquino was named by an astounding 60 percent of
respondents as their choice for president. Despite his being off the
political radar in the nine polls since 2007, Noynoy’s ranking took
off from virtually zero to 60 percent (Mangahas, 2009).4 Aquino’s
4 Since 2007, the SWS utilized the “best three” method in tracking the viable candidates for its regular quarterly national surveys. Respondents are asked to name up to three names (plural, as in sinu-sino). The objective is not to approximate actual election day voting but to identify and track the potentially viable candidates (Mangahas 2009).
148
frontrunner status was further reinforced by the result of the Pulse
Asia survey conducted from October 22 to 30, 2009, where he scored
44 percent nationwide, a 25 percent margin over second placer Manny
Villar (see Table 12).
Table 12: Pulse Asia First Choice Presidential Preference for 2010 Election (October 22-30, 2009)
Location Class
RP NCRBalLuz
Vis Min ABC D E
Aquino, Benigno “Noynoy” III 44 47 41 53 41 51 44 44
Villar, Manuel Jr. 19 11 19 24 19 13 20 18
Escudero, Francis 13 17 16 9 9 12 15 10
Estrada, Joseph 11 11 9 3 21 5 9 17
De Castro, Noli 4 2 5 5 4 1 4 6
Teodoro, Gilbert 2 4 1 1 1 4 2 1
Fernando, Bayani 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1
Villanueva, Eduardo 1 0 2 0 1 1 1 1
Others 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1
None/Refused/Undecided 3 3 4 4 2 2 4 2
Source: Pulse Asia, 2009
Keys to Success
Some political analysts and opinion columnists have described the
surge in the surveys of Noynoy Aquino as a “game changer”. With the
rise in his numbers in the surveys, it is apparent that the core reformist
issues such as transparency, accountability and good governance have
gained ground as the central issues of the 2010 election. As political
analyst Amando Doronila (2009) observed, “the survey results reflect the
deep and broad resonance of the issue of clean and honest governance
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 149
that highlights Aquino’s campaign theme. The groundswell of support
for Aquino following the death of his mother, President Cory Aquino,
flows from the public service record of his mother and his father,
the martyred former Sen. Benigno Aquino, whose honesty and
transparency appear to have been accepted by the Filipino public”.
The entry of Aquino has definitely shifted the momentum of the
campaign from the initial focus on “ground” and “air” wars, to a revival
of the issue-based, middle-class-backed reformist crusade reminiscent
of the campaigns of Ramon Magsaysay in 1953 and Corazon Aquino
in 1986. Both reformist campaigns faced critical elections that
“provided unique opportunities for transformist mobilization to ease,
if not resolve the deep-rooted ‘system contradictions’ which had
crystallized into full blown political crises” (Hedman & Sidel, 2000:
20). In the same light, the imperatives of addressing the legitimation
crisis of the Arroyo administration have galvanized reform-oriented
individuals and civil society organizations around the candidacy of
Noynoy Aquino. In effect, the aspirations for “change” and “hope”
and a rejection of “politics as usual” are fuelling the groundswell of
support for Aquino across class, age and region. The main challenge
for the Aquino campaign is to sustain this support into vote-generating
and vote-protecting machineries that will assure him of victory in
2010.
As of this writing, there are four serious contenders for the
presidency: Aquino, Villar, Estrada and Teodoro. This number is
expected to narrow down by the start of the official campaign period
on February 9, 2010. Each candidate is capitalizing on his perceived
strengths in positioning against the others (see Figure 6). In terms of
market votes, Aquino’s closest competitor is Erap Estrada. The former
president, the most media-savvy among the potential candidates, still
attracts a core of solid supporters, but his numbers have dwindled
from his phenomenal rankings in 1998. No doubt, his image has been
greatly affected by his ouster from the presidency, his conviction for
plunder, and more recently, his alleged complicity in a celebrated
150
murder that happened during his controversial administration. He
also faces the possibility of disqualification, given the constitutional
provision on term limits that bans the president from seeking any
reelection.
In terms of command votes, Manny Villar has mobilized his vast
fortune to finance the revitalization of the moribund Nacionalista Party.
Since 2001, the billionaire legislator has been rebuilding the NP to serve
as his vehicle for the presidency. Using the network he has built as
former House Speaker and Senate President, Villar has either directly
raided other parties or quietly secured the support of local and national
politicians. He has invested large amounts in political advertising, which
has translated into positive survey ratings. Despite efforts by his critics
to implicate him in corruption scandals and portray him as a trapo, he is
among the best-prepared candidates to take the reins of the presidency,
given his professional and political experience. With his “rags-to-riches”
story, he offers a compelling narrative to the Filipino electorate that can
rival the masa appeal of Erap.
Equally prepared to succeed the presidency is Defense Secretary
Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro. A bar topnotcher, three-term congressman,
and known protégé of his uncle Danding Cojuangco, Teodoro shifted
allegiance from the NPC to Lakas-CMD to contest the presidential
nomination of the ruling coalition. He won the nomination almost by
default, after frontrunner Noli de Castro refused to participate in the
primaries. However, Teodoro is a virtual unknown with survey rankings
hovering between 0.8 to 4 percent in the SWS surveys. He is also saddled
with the unenviable task of defending the largely unpopular Arroyo
administration. Adding to his troubles is his less-than-impressive
performance as Chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council
(NDCC) during the two recent typhoons that hit Manila and Northern
Luzon which caused massive floods and losses to lives and property.
What Teodoro lacks in terms of popularity, he hopes to make up for
in terms of the almost monolithic machinery of the ruling coalition. The
merged administration parties – Lakas-Kampi-CMD – claim the support
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 151
of about 70 percent of governors, congressmen and mayors across the
country (Burgonio & Salaverra, 2009). Out of 219 congressional seats,
Lakas-Kampi-CMD have 146 representatives, or about 66.7 percent
representation. In the gubernatorial race, they have 58 candidates out
of 80 slots, or 72.5 percent of the total available posts. For the city and
municipal mayoral positions, they have 85 out of 120, and 1,112 out of
1,507 positions, respectively (Joven, 2009).
Command Votes Market Votes
Government Money Party Issues Image
Teodoro Villar Aquino
Estrada
Figure 6: 2010 Candidate Positioning
Competing narratives of reformism, clientelism and populism
Thus far, electoral campaigns in post-authoritarian Philippines
have been waged with competing narratives of reformism, populism
and clientelism. Thompson (2009), in his contribution to this volume,
argues that these three are but forms of “elite politics”. The tradition
of Filipino-style reformist politics, which can be traced to the
presidential campaigns of Ramon Magsaysay in 1953 and Corazon
Aquino in 1986, has been revived in the issue-based anti-corruption
and good governance campaigns of Miriam Defensor Santiago in 1992
and Raul Roco in 1998 and 2004. The same reformist aspirations have
been rekindled to fuel the surging campaign of Noynoy Aquino.
However, the failure of reform politics to address the problem
of poverty, coupled with the ascendancy of mass media, fueled the
image-based populist campaigns of Joseph Estrada in 1998 and
152
Fernando Poe Jr. in 2004. Meanwhile, continued clientelism and money
politics manifested itself in the machine-based campaigns of Ramon
Mitra in 1992 and Jose de Venecia in 1998. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s
successful revitalization of clientelism in 2004 managed to undercut the
threat of a populist restoration (Thompson 2009). But in so doing, she
also triggered a legitimation crisis that nearly toppled her administration
and damaged fundamental institutions.
The last three elections in the post-1986 period “were not a
severance from the past but a continuation – with some surprising
twists” (Coronel, 2003: 11).
A formidable political machinery is not enough to guarantee success
in presidential elections, as experienced by Mitra and de Venecia. The
experiences of Santiago and Roco demonstrate that image and issues
are also not enough to win presidential elections; a candidate needs
the corresponding political machinery to get and protect his votes.
Successful presidential campaigns are characterized by the right mix
and astute use of popularity and machinery.
It has been observed that the Filipino electorate has shifted from
“feudal” to “mass” politics. The successive electoral exercises since 1992
have pointed to the rising inadequacies of relying on strong provincial
bailiwicks in winning national office. The so-called “command votes”
must now be supplemented by “market votes”. Like the mass market, the
electorate must be segmented and targeted. Thus, national candidates
(e.g., presidents and senators) must be packaged to target defined
niches in a highly segmented electorate (Magno, 1992). Ultimately,
media and public opinion polling have emerged as a primary and most
influential conduit between national candidates and the electorate.
These trends will continue to shape and define electoral campaigns in
the Philippines.
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 153
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Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 157
Appendix 1: 1992 Presidential Candidates and Census Variables: Percentage of Variance in Votes Accounted
for by Census Variables
F. Ramos
M. Santiago
E. Cojuangco
R. Mitra
I. Marcos
J. Salonga
S. Laurel
Cebuano 4.97 -4.49 -0.24 0.45 3.84 2.54 -0.32
Tagalog -1.20 -1.46 0.97 0.43 2.29 0.51 20.06
Ilocano -0.01 -4.33 8.09 -1.97 8.51 1.18 1.21
Hiligaynon 1.17 1.15 -0.15 -1.91 4.62 0.44 -0.43
Bicolano 0.00 -0.52 -0.02 0.16 0.01 0.45 0.03
Samar-Leyte -3.20 -3.15 -2.02 -0.07 9.72 10.44 0.38
Pangasinan 14.19 0.01 0.63 -0.15 -2.76 -0.48 -1.05
Major Language
0.91 2.24 -0.01 -0.85 -2.21 1.34 -0.03
Protestant 5.06 0.61 -1.74 0.06 -2.41 0.44 -9.43
Aglipayan -0.90 0.39 -0.15 -2.19 1.66 -1.58 0.94
Iglesia ni Cristo
0.12 0.00 1.46 0.00 -4.79 -0.31 -0.60
Muslim 0.62 0.14 0.00 0.42 -3.52 0.36 -3.75
OtherReligion
-0.99 0.62 -0.27 1.61 -3.06 -0.01 0.01
Rice -3.73 1.72 0.41 -0.75 0.14 0.12 0.75
Corn -5.13 0.12 0.90 0.05 -0.39 -0.75 2.95
Sugar -3.25 -0.02 0.01 0.02 -0.99 -0.63 17.14
Tobacco -0.29 1.02 -0.55 -0.05 -0.41 -1.42 -1.03
Perm. Crops -0.31 0.54 -0.52 -0.86 -0.34 0.07 8.42
College -0.46 2.99 -2.15 -2.77 -0.02 0.02 10.82
Grade School -1.38 -0.92 -0.28 0.98 1.04 2.50 0.72
No School 0.00 -1.58 -0.74 0.00 4.44 0.33 4.89
Radio 0.00 -0.68 0.00 4.78 0.01 -5.10 0.34
Source: Landé 1996
Language
Religion
Crops
Information
158
Appendix 2: Presidential Votes by Language Based on Social Weather Stations 1998 Exit Polls
TotalRP
(100%)
Tagalog
(34%)
Ce-buano
(25%)
Ilonggo
(8%)
Ilocano
(8%)
Bicol
(5%)
Ka-pam-pan-gan
(2%)
Waray
(3%)
Pang-sin-ense
(2%)
Cha-va-
cano
(1%)
Other Lu-zon
(2%)
OtherVisayan
(4%)
Oth-er
Mind-anao
(5%)
Estrada 38.8% 41.7% 31.1% 43.6% 49.6% 9.9% 44.7% 6.1% 7.9% 52.4% 38.9% 37.3% 52.7%
De Venecia
16.2 10.8 15.4 12.5 24.7 7.2 12.1 14.3 90.6 5.3 26.8 11.1 27.4
Roco 13.4 19.1 3.6 3.0 5.4 80.0 22.2 0.6 1.5 5.3 15.7 4.9 1.9
Osmeña 12.1 1.5 38.8 9.0 0.4 0.0 0.0 6.3 0.0 8.3 0.0 15.3 8.7
Lim 9.1 13.8 6.6 9.1 4.1 1.0 19.3 11.4 0.0 26.7 3.4 8.8 3.8
De Villa 4.7 10.6 2.2 2.3 1.0 1.4 0.8 0.7 0.0 1.9 1.2 1.8 2.1
Santiago 3.1 1.8 0.4 19.2 0.6 0.0 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 19.2 0.4
Enrile 1.4 0.5 0.1 0.2 11.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 12.7 0.0 0.8
Marcos 0.9 0.0 1.7 1.1 .1 0.5 0.2 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.5 1.5
Dumlao 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.9 1.1 0.8
Morato 0.04 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Source: Social Weather Stations, 1998
Appendix 3: Presidential Votes by Religion Based on Social Weather Stations 1998 Exit Polls
TotalRP
(100%)
Catho-lic
(82%)
Iglesia ni
Cristo
(3%)
A g l i -payan
(2%)
Other Christian
(6%)
Muslim
(4%)
Other
(3%)
El Shaddai
(3%)
Jesusis
Lord(1%)
JesusMiracleCrusade(0.3%)
Other Groups(8%)
Estrada 38.8% 37.0% 81.4% 34.7% 29.0% 63.2% 34.7% 39.2% 51.9% 43.2% 33.0%
De Venecia
16.2 14.9 6.4 27.6 26.4 24.7 23.2 11.0 23.4 13.1 15.6
Roco 13.4 14.7 3.4 5.1 11.0 2.3 11.7 20.9 10.0 0.0 14.2
Osmeña 12.1 12.5 2.1 9.3 16.1 1.9 11.5 4.6 6.5 38.0 13.3
Lim 9.1 9.8 3.3 8.2 7.0 3.7 8.2 11.4 8.2 5.6 14.6
De Villa 4.7 5.2 1.7 0.0 3.6 2.4 3.4 10.6 0.0 0.0 4.7
Santiago 3.1 3.2 0.0 8.5 2.9 0.0 2.8 2.4 0.0 0.0 3.0
Enrile 1.4 1.1 3.6 1.6 0.0 2.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.6
Marcos 0.9 0.8 0.6 2.9 1.8 0.5 2.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.8
Dumlao 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3
Morato 0.04 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Source: Social Weather Stations, 1998
Charismatic Group
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 159
Appendix 4: Presidential Votes by Socio-Economic Class and Educational Attainment Based on Social Weather Stations
1998 Exit Polls
TotalRP
(100%)
ABC
(9%)
D
(21%)
E
(20%)
ElementaryGraduate
(35%)
High SchoolGraduate
(41%)
SomeCollege(10%)
CollegeGraduate
(13%)
Estrada 38.8% 23.0% 38.2% 47.6% 44.6% 41.6% 30.8% 21.4%
De Venecia 16.2 12.3 1.3 17.7 17.0 16.4 14.8 14.9
Roco 13.4 26.1 13.2 8.5 8.9 12.0 21.0 24.1
Osmeña 12.1 5.7 12.4 13.7 14.0 11.1 10.4 11.8
Lim 9.1 20.1 8.8 5.6 6.1 7.9 12.5 18.2
De Villa 4.7 9.6 4.7 2.5 3.5 5.3 6.7 4.3
Santiago 3.1 1.4 3.7 1.7 2.9 3.2 2.6 3.0
Enrile 1.4 0.8 1.5 1.2 1.7 1.4 0.7 1.2
Marcos 0.9 0.7 0.9 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.4 0.5
Dumlao 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.2
Morato 0.04 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3
Source: Social Weather Stations, 1998
Appendix 5: Presidential Votes by Gender and Age Attainment Based on Social Weather Stations 1998 Exit Polls
Total RP
(100%)
Estrada 38.8% 40 38 39 40 39 38
De Venecia 16.2 16 16 16 17 16 16
Roco 13.4 13 14 17 14 12 12
Osmeña 12.1 12 12 11 12 13 13
Lim 9.1 8 10 10 9 8 10
De Villa 4.7 5 5 5 4 6 4
Santiago 3.1 3 3 2 2 3 4
Enrile 1.4 1 2 1 2 1 1
Marcos 0.9 0.7 1 0.7 0.6 1 1
Dumlao 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.04 0.2 0.3
Morato 0.04 0.05 0.03 0.2 0.1 0 0
Source: Social Weather Stations, 1998
Socio-Economic Class Educational Attainment
Gender Age
Male Female 18-24 25-34 35-44 45+ (46%) (54%) (16%) (29%) (25%) (30%)
160
Appendix 6: Presidential Votes by Language Based on Social Weather Stations 2004 Exit Polls
TotalRP
(100%)
Tagalog
(34%)
Cebuana
(25%)
Ilocano
(8%)
Ilonggo
(8%)
Bicol
(4%)
Others
(19%)
Arroyo 41% 25% 61% 32% 54% 25% 47%
Poe 32 38 24 36 22 20 35
Lacson 9 15 5 11 6 4 4
Roco 5 6 2 2 4 3 3
Villanueva 5 8 3 5 5 3 3
No Answer 8 8 5 14 9 10 7
Source: Social Weather Stations, 2004
Appendix 7: Presidential Votes by Religion Based on Social Weather Stations 2004 Exit Polls
TotalRP
(100%)
Catholic
(80%)
Iglesiani
Cristo
(3%)
OtherChristian
(6%)
Muslim
(4%)
Others
(7%)
None
(0.7%)
Couplesfor
Christ(4%)
ElShaddai
(1.3%)
Jesus isLord
(0.7%)
JesusMiracleCrusade
(0.1)
OtherGroups
(5%)
Arroyo 41% 41 74 29 47 41 34 54 23 24 13 46
Poe 32 32 10 30 44 29 33 22 53 23 63 22
Lacson 9 10 1 8 3 9 10 7 16 0 0 8
Roco 5 6 0 3 3 3 8 6 4 3 0 7
Villanueva 5 3 0 25 0 10 4 1 2 44 0 9
No Answer 8 8 15 6 3 7 10 10 3 5 24 7
Source: Social Weather Stations, 2004
Charismatic Group
Image, issue, and machinery: Presidential campaigns in post-1986 Philippines 161
Appendix 8: Presidential Votes by Socio-Economic Class
and Educational Attainment Based
on Social Weather Stations 2004 Exit Polls
TotalRP
(100%)
ABC D E NoneElementaryGraduate
(20%)
ElementaryGrduate
(19%)
High School
(33%)
SomeCollege
(16%)
CollegeGraduate
(11%)
Arroyo 41% 42 40 43 47 41 39 38 42
Poe 32 20 32 35 33 39 36 25 16
Lacson 9 11 10 7 6 5 9 16 12
Roco 5 7 5 5 2 4 5 8 9
Villanueva 5 12 5 3 2 2 5 8 11
No Answer 8 8 8 8 11 8 6 6 9
Source: Social Weather Stations, 2004
Appendix 9: Presidential Votes by Gender and Age Attainment Based on Social Weather Stations 2004 Exit Polls
TotalRP
(100%)Male
(45%)Female(55%)
18-24(14%)
25-34(25%)
35-44(25%)
45-54(17%)
55 & up(19%)
Arroyo 41% 41 41 33 38 44 44 45
Poe 32 30 33 38 33 30 31 28
Lacson 9 11 8 11 10 8 8 7
Roco 5 5 5 8 6 5 3 5
Villanueva 5 5 5 5 6 6 3 3
No Answer 8 8 8 4 6 7 10 12
Source: Social Weather Stations, 2004
Socio-Economic Class Educational Attainment
Gender Age