Santiago-Escudero tops UPLB student mock election

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">MANILA, Philippines -  If there is one thing that Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was able to carry on herself as part of her political capital, it’s none other than her arresting aura that the youth enjoys well regardless of what generation they belonged with. That attribute manifested clearly as the feisty presidential aspirant who hails from Iloilo topped the recently concluded presidential and vice presidential mock election by Political Science 1 Section W students from the University of the Philippines Los Baños.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a rel='nofollow' href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9f8R2-xBPlu6-jFBfdxEZzTcA-j42dKHxXKU97bZPklqOf-Zedv9mEndJ6kUhiJ7CeziNWLRL71rzV7hNlM-BWZ9YMOcig4YLgv2LvVULyyU7NIIvCH4gx37DVf6hPk0WG93cohl-9fIQ/s1600/santiagoescuderotopspoll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Santiago-Escudero for 2016 according to a mock student election held by UPLB political science students" border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9f8R2-xBPlu6-jFBfdxEZzTcA-j42dKHxXKU97bZPklqOf-Zedv9mEndJ6kUhiJ7CeziNWLRL71rzV7hNlM-BWZ9YMOcig4YLgv2LvVULyyU7NIIvCH4gx37DVf6hPk0WG93cohl-9fIQ/s640/santiagoescuderotopspoll.jpg" title="Santiago-Escudero for 2016 according to a mock student election held by UPLB political science students" width="560" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It’s a Santiago-Escudero for 2016 according to a mock student election held by UPLB political science students</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>Youth vote goes to Miriam again </b><br /><br />Held last November 26 with the theme ‘Reimagining Philippine Politics’, the mock election was able to gather a total number of 2,292 voters who were asked to pick their preferred presidential and vice presidential bets based from those heavyweight political figures running for the respective seats.<br /><br />Out of that number, Santiago snagged the top spot by garnering a total of 1,507 votes or two-thirds of the total votes casted. She took the lead by a wide margin as she was followed by Duterte coming over with only 420 votes (18.32%).<br /><br />Surprisingly, Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II of Liberal Party who has been trailing behind the rest of the top presidential aspirants in various surveys emerged as UPLB community’s third choice with 114 or (4.97%) while consistent survey topnotcher of the recent time Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares was very closed to Roxas with 100 votes (4.36%).<br /><br />Corruption issues seems to be hitting Vice President Jejomar Binay as the ‘iskolars’ placed him only on the fifth spot with 40 votes (2.01%).<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a rel='nofollow' href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaBafM8xdSQ_rKw0_MmvW4dKPkG3FlbYpEKvVkQSqgpeLuEQ0ARHi7tlWADnfGwR4qtcZ7BBCmrffLENbeDpNv_OU5RJDsXxs85ToQ4lFoFFzdWfKV4_DQwcteMGSOAwk_F7VRryHyv-e/s1600/santiago-uplb-poll1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UPLB political science election poll results" border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaBafM8xdSQ_rKw0_MmvW4dKPkG3FlbYpEKvVkQSqgpeLuEQ0ARHi7tlWADnfGwR4qtcZ7BBCmrffLENbeDpNv_OU5RJDsXxs85ToQ4lFoFFzdWfKV4_DQwcteMGSOAwk_F7VRryHyv-e/s640/santiago-uplb-poll1.jpg" title="UPLB political science election poll results" width="560" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: UPLB Mock Elections by Political Science Section W Facebook page</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Among the 2,292 participants in the mock election, 2,187 voted for those abovementioned names while the rest voted for lesser-known candidates (3.49%) and abstained (1.09%).<br /><br /><b>Escudero remains top choice for VP post</b><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a rel='nofollow' href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtZJAylWQ62iVzAy0SkEAwXzWF5NUhnuMqY-bzQ54w8YrDYieQLl9yN_gyFDJv07qQpdeLTyTFuvdImKDsuMnWc0OZbU3xXwz-madc-4nJlaIAyT8g2MH5mzekgfnRpdbZ5yTz_bpg22ar/s1600/santiago-uplb-poll2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UPLB Mock Elections by Political Science results" border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtZJAylWQ62iVzAy0SkEAwXzWF5NUhnuMqY-bzQ54w8YrDYieQLl9yN_gyFDJv07qQpdeLTyTFuvdImKDsuMnWc0OZbU3xXwz-madc-4nJlaIAyT8g2MH5mzekgfnRpdbZ5yTz_bpg22ar/s640/santiago-uplb-poll2.jpg" title="UPLB Mock Elections by Political Science results" width="560" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: UPLB Mock Elections by Political Science Section W Facebook page</td></tr></tbody></table>While his partner obtained unsatisfactory result, Senator Francis Escudero maintained his position as the leading figure to succeed Binay as shown by the mock poll results wherein he took 584 votes (25.48%).<br /><br />But compared to the presidential mock poll results, the vice presidential category was a tight race between him and Congresswoman Leni Robredo of Camarines Sur. With a 46 lesser votes, Robredo came very close to Escudero as she had 538 or 23.47% of the total.<br /><br />Senators Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Alan Peter Cayetano were trailing behind on the third and fourth place with 387 and 359 votes.<br /><br />The famed leader of the failed ‘Oakwood mutiny’ Senator Antonio Trillanes IV was at fifth place with 134 (5.85%) votes while the last place was occupied by Binay’s running mate, Senator Gregorio Honasan holding a meager two-digit vote of 71 (3.10%).<br /><br />There were 169 (7.37%) voters who picked other candidates other than the first sixth aspirants while 50 (2.18%) abstained.<br /><br /><b>Will her social media army enough to bring Miriam to Malacañan?</b><br /><br />“It is entirely possible that the 2016 presidential and senatorial elections will be determined by social media” – Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on her view with the 2016 elections.<br /><br />If there is one class in the Philippine society where Miriam has a stronghold with, then it is the youth. It clearly shows that her previous presidential campaign during the 1992 and 1998 elections were majorly youth-driven. Albeit failing twice, she remained as a one of the enigmatic figure in the senate as shown on her successive elections to the congress excluding the 2001 senatorial elections. Now that she is giving another shot for the presidency while recovering from sickness, she’s banking on the power of her social media army to finally end the saga of her quest for the presidency on a high note.<br /><br /><b>Amidst the controversies, will Escudero maintain his hold until May 2016?</b><br /><br />We’ve known how the 2010 vice presidential derby was fought by Binay and Roxas. Roxas was leading the surveys until his supporters were caught by surprise on how Binay slowly but surely climbed his way on top, eventually tossing out Roxas on election day.<br /><br />Escudero is at the top, thanks to his calm and straightforward articulateness with the Filipino language and of course, by Poe’s charisma that secured him to where he is now.<br /><br />But with the administration backing Robredo, Cayetano and Marcos being under the two of the most colorful and charismatic presidential candidates, the words ‘Vice President’ cannot be owned yet by Escudero as early as of this time.<br /><br /><b><i>- Michael Santiago/TheSummitExpress</i></b></div>

Santiago-Escudero tops UPLB student mock election

MANILA, Philippines -  If there is one thing that Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was able to carry on herself as part of her political cap...

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