MICHAEL MARLEY’S PHILIPPINE DIARY, PART 15:
GENERAL SANTOS CITY–It may turn out to be irrational exuberance in hindsight.
“I smell a big, big electoral triumph for Manny (Pacquiao),” promoter Bob Arum exclaimed at 4:35 pm Friday afternoon
We won’t know, according to promoter turned political pundit Arum until about 7 pm, South Cotobato time, Monday night, two hours after the polls close in the Congressional battle between aspiring public servant Manny Pacquiao and entrenched power broker and billionaire Roy Chiongbian.
But, as I write this on a rainy Friday afternoon in Pacman’s hometown, not far from the extremely rural Sarangani Province, the Pacman camp is growing louder and more confident about not only beating the Chongbian Family Machine but trouncing it.
“Maybe Wolf Blitzer on CNN will call the result based on exit polling,” Arum said, joking as he tore through a tuna salad sandwich at the Royale Hotel.
“Seriously,” Arum said, “we are looking at an independently done poll now which shows Manny as having 78 percent of the vote in the province with the balance for the opponent or not decided.”
However, local experts tell me that the race is much, much closer than any landslide like that.
MICHAEL MARLEY’S PHILIPPINE DIARY
