But Lacson's team shrugged off these numbers, saying their standard bearer's "steady, slow burn" trajectory towards Malacañang is "a good sign at this point."
"Para siyang tinatawag na slow burn, steady. Two, naging four. Four tumaas sa eight. It keeps going up," said Reporma spokesperson Minguita Padilla.
(It's like a slow burn that's steady. Two became four. Four became eight. It keeps going up.)
"Hindi ‘yung mataas tapos biglang naging parang shooting star, ‘yung ganoon, na nawala ang shine... 'yung iba, either it’s a plateau or bumababa," she said.
(He's not like other candidates who are like shooting stars that would suddenly lose their shine... others either plateau or decline.)
Lacson still has enough time to "increase his public presence," said Dennis Coronacion, who chairs the University of Santo Tomas Department of Political Science.
"Ngayon hindi pa maka-connect sa kaniya (Lacson) ang tao," he told ABS-CBN News.
(As of now, people have yet to establish a connection with Lacson.)
"Hindi totally helpless si Lacson. He can do something about it. Puwede niya pang ayusin 'yan," he said.
(Lacson is not totally helpless. He can do something about it. He can still fix that.)
The Reporma standard bearer needs to have a clearer stance on issues because he seems to be "trying to cast an image as a candidate that can draw votes from the Duterte supporters and can draw votes from the anti-Duterte supporters," Coronacion said.
"Namamangka sila sa dalawang ilog (they are navigating two rivers at once)... Let's see if that's going to work," he said.
Lacson can find refuge in the initial failure but eventual success of US President Joe Biden, political analyst Ramon Casiple said.
Biden first ran for US president in 1988, but eventually withdrew his candidacy after his campaign was marred by several issues including allegations of plagiarism and false claims over his educational attainment.
Over 3 decades later, Biden snagged the presidency from re-electionist Donald Trump.
"He (Biden) ran and lost but he ran again because he studied his record. He knows what the people want," Casiple said, noting that Lacson should take a cue from Biden's strategy.
"If you've been judged already by the people, you have to really discern if that judgment is a long lasting one or simply because there was an issue that may have been misinterpreted by the people," he said.
Lacson, known for his brand of discipline in the PNP, was lauded in the '90s for his campaigns against kidnapping and jueteng, but was dragged into the brutal killing of the Kuratong Baleleng gang members, and the murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.
The senator denied his involvement in both cases, but fled the Philippines in 2010, months after former police senior superintendent Cezar Mancao II named him as the mastermind of the Dacer-Corbito murder case.
Lacson returned to the Philippines in 2011 after the Supreme Court backed the Court of Appeals' ruling to dismiss the case against him, noting that Mancao was "not a credible and trustworthy witness."
In 2012, the Supreme Court dismissed the Kuratong Baleleng case against Lacson.
In 2015, Mancao apologized to Lacson and Estrada for linking them in the Dacer–Corbito case, saying he was forced by Estrada nemesis Arroyo, the former president, to implicate them in the crime.
"He (Mancao) went to my office through a classmate of his," Lacson said in a recent interview.
"I readily accepted the apology. I am a very forgiving person pero mahirap ako makalimot sa ginawa sa akin (but I find it hard to forget the wrongs done to me)," the senator said.
The ability to make a political comeback after suffering from bad publicity is "the mark of a leadership of a politician," Casiple said.
"It's a question of reading the people's mind so they put your name on the ballot," he said.
Lacson said his team is disinterested in using issues of the past or controversies surrounding other candidates to boost his survey rankings.
"We will avoid getting down to gutter politics... We will do away with dirty politics, rise on our merits," Lacson said.
"'Yung mga naninira probably they have no merit to speak of kaya sinisiraan na lang nila mga kalaban nila."
(Those involved in mudslinging may have no merit to speak of that's why they just badmouth their opponents.)
Treading the "last leg" of his career as a politician, Lacson, 73, said he would rather tell voters about his career milestones and programs in hopes that this kind of campaigning would make vying for the presidency sweeter the second time around.
*********
October 22, 2021
3D-ADDICT
