PNoy on Duterte victory: They mounted a better campaign

It was the “right tone, right messaging at the right time” that made President-elect Rodrigo Duterte win the May 9 elections, outgoing President Benigno Aquino III said Tuesday.

In an interview with news website Rappler, Aquino said Duterte’s team had a “very masterful way” of running the Davao City mayor’s campaign.

“‘Am I running, am I not running?’ So we really have to hand it to them that they mounted a better campaign. It was the right tone, right messaging at the right time,” Aquino said.

Duterte was a reluctant candidate up until the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) in October last year. He initially filed his COC for re-election in Davao City but ended up on the presidential race as a substitute for PDP-Laban's standard bearer Martin Diño, who withdrew his candidacy after learning that he was about to be declared as a nuisance candidate by teh Commission on Elections.

Duterte won the presidential elections with a total of 16.6 million votes, or 6.6 million votes ahead of Aquino’s endorsed candidate, former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.

Aquino said Roxas placing second in the May 9 presidential race was “nothing to be ashamed about.”

“Perhaps in a sense...they (Duterte) were able to really differentiate themselves, I guess from the pack...On the other hand, from number four in the surveys to number two is nothing to be ashamed about,” Aquino said.

“Perhaps there should have been a better effort somewhere earlier that might have resulted in a difference,” he added.

Roxas was a consistent fourth in the pre-election surveys, trailing then behind Duterte, Vice President Jejomar Binay, and Senator Grace Poe. —Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez/KBK, GMA News