“I still need to barnstorms for more votes” – Villar

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 DAGUPAN CITY – Senatorial bet Cynthia Villar downplayed her Numbers 3 and 4 rank at the latest polls by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia, saying she needed more time to barnstorm all over the country so she could get more votes. “It was only a survey. I need more time to campaign to increase my stocks,” she said. Although she dropped at No. 4 in the April 20 -22, 2013 Pulse Asia Survey, her No. 3 spot at SWS’s April 13-15, 2013 polls showed it was her highest feat almost a month before the May 13 election. “I am both humbled and overwhelmed by the continued support of Filipinos to my senatorial candidacy. The number three position in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey is the highest ranking I have reached since I publicly announced my intention to run for a Senate seat and filed my candidacy,” she said recently in a press release.
 To have reached such a high spot in the poll survey during the last stretch of the campaign period is really a source of tremendous inspiration for me,” she continued.
Villar popularity at SWS varies: August 2012 with 31 senatorial candidates (SC), Voting Preferences (VP) 34% where she was ranked Nos. 10-11; December 2012 with 32 SC, VP 51% where she was ranked No. 4; January 2013 with 33 SC, VP 46% where she was ranked Nos. 8-9; February 2013 with 33 SC, VP 53% where she was ranked No. 4; March 2013 with 33 SC, VP 47 where she was ranked No. 7; and April with 33 SC, VP 49% where she was ranked 3-4. Her No. 7, her lowest, in March have been caused by the brouhaha brought by the nurse rues when she beat the 30 seconds left for her to answer the question of Winnie Monsod on the plight of Filipino nurses abroad.
The show was aired on GMA-7’sTV “Pagsubok sa mga Kandidato” on March 2 this year. “They misunderstood Villar. She only came to the succor of the beleaguered nursing students who would be displaced in case the 23 nursing colleges would be closed,” a supporter who asked not to be named, said. In an interview in the recent April 30 Kalutan ed Dalan Street Party here, she said the series of articles that assailed her on the nurses’ “faux pass” were black propaganda. “But her dexterous PR team has not easily refuted it but nobody talked about it anymore,” the supporter explained. Villar just laughed when asked that without the nurses’ hubbub she would be on the top notch, at the expense of senatorial rivals Loren Legarda and Chiz Escudero, of the SWS or Pulse Asia. According to the same supporter, the secret of Villar was due to her carefully crafted campaign strategies on TV where she did not only maintain a consistent 30 second ad slot but changes it with a new one in a weekly interval. “Kita mo naman hindi nakakasawa iyong TV ads ni maam kasi paiba-iba halos every week unlike sa mga rivals niya,” the supporter said. When asked about these aggressive TV ads, Villar downplayed it. She explained that other senatorial candidates have more time slots on their TV ads than her.