Will the nation have a new leader who received a landslide victory or one who got only a minority vote in Monday’s presidential election?
Sen. Edgardo Angara Sunday predicted that there would be “no decisive winner” in the presidential race.
“This is like 1992 when you had a minority president,” said Angara, an ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The 1992 presidential race saw Fidel Ramos winning by 23.4 percent of the vote over eight other presidential contenders.
Angara made the claim even as recent surveys showed Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III leading all other presidential contenders.
In a phone interview, Angara said the presidential surveys did not give “the true picture of what was on the ground.”
He said the results were “skewed” and “did not represent the true sentiments of the people.”
Angara said the race for the presidency was likely to be a “three-way fight” among Aquino, Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., and former President Joseph Estrada of Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino.
He said Lakas-Kampi-CMD candidate Gilberto Teodoro might have a fighting chance if the administration machinery is able to deliver votes for him in Mindanao.
Explaining why he thinks the country would end up having a minority president, Angara said “people are really fragmented” because of the “unexciting” presidential campaign.
“They (the voters) were not challenged by any rallying vision,” he said.
Angara ran for vice president as the running mate of Estrada in 1998 but lost to Arroyo.
Angara felt the presidential candidates who were in the margins, like Sen. Richard Gordon and Nicanor Perlas, had the more “exciting” and “sound” ideas on how to move the country.
“The principal candidates mouthed rhetoric rather than realities. They were unable to come up with solutions,” Angara said.
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