‘Infighting inside Duterte camp’

The ink has hardly dried on the ballot but already infighting has started among close Duterte supporters jockeying for position. While the group of heavily-favored candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has yet to crystallize its composition, our inside informant within the Duterte camp told Spy Bits that two main groups are at loggerheads. One group is reportedly composed of Mindanao businessmen headed by the Dominguez brothers (Paul and Sonny) while the other group has the classmates of the Mayor led by former Press Secretary Jess Dureza and former Justice Secretary Bebot Bello.

Describing the situation as “counting the chicks even before the eggs are hatched,” the insider expressed alarm that the rivalry between the two factions could escalate into something similar to the very early turf war between the “Balay” and “Samar” factions in the Aquino administration, with the power play becoming so apparent, for instance, after the demise of Jesse Robredo when there was a scramble for the DILG Cabinet position.

Balay of course is the group of Liberal Party stalwarts like Butch Abad who held their meetings at the “Bahay na Puti” or “Balay” at the Araneta compound in Cubao, while “Samar” is composed of the group of Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa that was headquartered in a street of the same name during the 2010 elections.

The “partisan politics” between the president’s allies began even before he could step into Malacañang as they fought for Cabinet appointments either for themselves or their preferred “candidates” for certain positions – with the president often resorting to compromises, for example, dividing the DILG position between his friend and party mate Rico Puno and the late Jesse Robredo. We all know how that resulted of course, as seen in the Luneta bus hostage fiasco in August 2010, with the rivalry between these two groups persisting in the whole six years of the Aquino administration.

This power play within the Duterte camp is not a good sign, with too many flexing their muscles to prove who has the ear of the Mayor. Too much, too soon is all we can say. Perhaps the only saving grace is the presence of former president Fidel Ramos who is widely acknowledged as “the power behind the throne” and the one who finally convinced the Davao City mayor to join the presidential race. FVR will most likely be the senior adviser and will surely emerge as the “voice of reason” within the Duterte camp. After all, FVR was the former boss of both Jess Dureza and Paul Dominguez.

Voter migration

While votes are being counted, hopefully people will have a fairly good idea later today on the likely winner especially for the position of president. Traditionally however, elections like this with a big number of candidates like what we had during the 1992 presidential elections with seven contenders – FVR, Miriam Santiago, Ramon Mitra, Jovito Salonga, Doy Laurel, Imelda Marcos and Danding Cojuangco – could be affected by “voter migration” which could alter results.

In the case of this 2016 elections, credible surveys show Mayor Duterte as the runaway winner with about 33 percent of the votes followed by Grace Poe with 22 and Mar Roxas at 20. While Duterte’s double digit lead looks commanding, some 12.5 million voters comprising the undecided (15 percent) and those who said they might shift votes at the last minute (10 percent), have the potential to be the game changer, according to Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes.

Analysts say however that the decision of Grace Poe not to throw in the towel amidst the “unity” call made by President Aquino and Mar Roxas – with the express implication that all the other candidates should join forces behind Mar to beat Duterte – was correct since she has the better chance to narrow down the mayor’s lead if voters “migrate” to her camp.

Surveys show that 41 percent of Roxas supporters, should he withdraw, will shift to Grace while only 16 percent will go to Duterte. On the other hand, 26 percent of Poe supporters would go to Duterte while only 23 percent will shift to Mar, our in-house pollster also tells us. 

Voters’ complaints

Voters trooped to their precincts early to avoid long lines, but it seems most everyone had the same thing in mind so many ended up waiting for as long as four hours just to cast their votes. Aggravating the experience was the scorching heat of the sun, although there were some precincts that provided chairs and tents to lessen the suffering of voters. Senior citizens and PWD (people with disability) had a more difficult time because only a handful of polling places had special precincts just for their use. We also received complaints about voters not finding their names in the polling precincts despite having registered with biometrics and all. 

But majority of the complaints however had to do with the malfunctioning VCMs (vote counting machines) with ballots rejected, receipts not issued and the machines hanging every few minutes. We received reports that many voters who had been waiting patiently ended up going home because the machines in their precincts jammed and malfunctioned. Some members of the board of election inspectors (BEI) must have been so frustrated that they tried pounding the machines to make them work. There are over 92,500 VCMs from Smartmatic and though they have assured voters that there are “replacement machines,” concerns are still widespread about potential cheating. Let’s hope this will not be the case.

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