One supporter wrote a stirring campaign song that has been played nearly 4 million times on Spotify. Other volunteers are barnstorming Philippine villages, going door-to-door to endorse Vice President Leni Robredo in next week’s presidential election.
The stakes are high: If Robredo’s opponent, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., clinches the presidency, as surveys suggest, it will mark a stunning reversal for a nation where millions poured out in 1986 to force out of the country a dictator and Marcos’s father, whose legacy continues to shadow his son.
Followers from diverse backgrounds — families with their grandparents and children, doctors, activists, Catholic priests and nuns, TV and movie stars, farmers and students — have joined Robredo’s fiesta-like campaign rallies in the tens of thousands. She called the emerging movement a “pink revolution” after the color worn by her volunteers.
The huge crowds, as well as drone shots and videos posted online by followers, evoke memories of the massive but largely peaceful 1986 “People Power” uprising that toppled strongman Ferdinand Marcos in an Asian democratic milestone that awed the world.
While the rallying call then was to bring back democracy after years of a brutal and corrupt dictatorship, the battle cry of Robredo’s supporters is a promise to bring good and corruption-free governance with her as the new reformist torchbearer.
“We’ve been wanting good governance, honest, hard-working government officials, who genuinely care for the people, and she’s finally here,” said Nica del Rosario, a 32-year-old musician. “Let’s not waste this chance because somebody like her doesn’t come very often.”
With her colleagues, del Rosario wrote and sang two campaign songs for Robredo, including “Rosas” — Tagalog for roses — a tribute to the opposition leader’s patriotic and humble brand of hands-on politics that has become an emotional anthem to her followers. The song has been streamed more than 3.9 million times on Spotify in just two months, and has gone viral on Facebook and YouTube and driven supporters to tears at rallies.
But Robredo is fighting an uphill electoral battle against Marcos’s son and namesake, who has topped voter-preference surveys with a seemingly insurmountable lead.
Robredo remained in second place in independent surveys for the 10-way presidential race, far behind Marcos Jr., with just a week before 67 million registered voters pick their next leader on May 9.
Marcos Jr. topped the latest poll by Pulse Asia with 56% support, although his rating dipped slightly among the lower-middle class, and Robredo ranked second with 24% after a nine-point rise. The other candidates lagged far behind in the March 17-21 survey, which polled 2,400 Filipinos of voting age nationwide with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Marcos Jr.’s candidacy has been bolstered by his vice-presidential running mate, Sara Duterte, the daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, who has remained popular despite his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs and dismal human rights record that has left thousands dead since 2016.
“There is still a possibility that people will change their decision,” Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes said of voter preferences. It’s also hard to capture the effect of word-of-mouth and house-to-house campaigns, he said.
Activists who helped oust Marcos 36 years ago fear Philippine history would be upended if his son takes over a country long seen as the Asian bulwark of democracy. Marcos Jr., a 64-year-old former senator, has defended his father’s legacy and steadfastly refuses to acknowledge and apologize for the widespread abuses and plunder that scarred the Philippines during his martial law rule. Courts in the U.S. and the Philippines as well as government investigations have offered indisputable evidence of that period.
“My worst fear is the return of the Marcoses… because we will face global condemnation….
Read More: Philippine vote: Volunteers back reformer vs dictator’s son