(Eagle News) – Vice-President Leni Robredo’s change of color to symbolize her presidential campaign was a “very bad signal” and could create further problems for her, according to a political analyst.
Prof. Van Ybiernas, an economic historian and international relations professor who has a master’s degree in political science, said Robredo running as an independent candidate, instead of running as the standard bearer of the Liberal Party, would also create much confusion.
“I think yung pink ni Vice-President Robredo was a terrible choice,” he said in an interview with the NET25-Radyo Agila program “Balitalakayan” on Monday night, Oct. 11.
He said, his colleagues — other political scientists and analysts — particularly Dr. Efren Isorena pointed this out.
“Hindi maganda yung inaabandon mo yung colors that gave you victory in 2016. Kasi parang tinatatwa mo yung supporters mo,” he said.
“Parang sinasabi mo you are in essence turning your back on your original color dahil parang may pag-amin on your part na lahat ng sinasabing masama on your original colors are right, that’s why kailangan mong magpalit ng new color,” he said.
Ybiernas said that this is the biggest problem of Robredo – consistency.
“May consistency kasi dapat,” he said. “Yan ang pinakamalaking problema ni Mrs. Robredo.”
He surmised that probably the strategy to choose pink was that this was the color of October as “breast cancer awareness month” and was therefore a popular color.
-Very bad signal-
Aside from the change in the campaign color, he said, the Vice-President would also have to address questions on why she chose to run as an independent, when she is the current chairman of the Liberal Party.
“It’s a very bad signal specially sa die-hard (na LP),” Ybiernas said.
“Kasi kailangan pa nyang sagutin yun. Bakit ka hindi nag-Liberal Party, e ikaw ang chairman?” he pointed out.
Ybiernas said that answering these questions could affect Robredo’s campaign, considering her low showing in surveys. He cited the September 6-11 Pulse Asia survey where Robredo only got an eight percent backing from the poll’s respondents, thus ranking sixth among 12 probable presidential candidates.
(Eagle News Service)
