- Mayor Rodrigo Duterte emerge as the most talked-about presidential candidate on Facebook
- His runningmate, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, also beats his rivals for vice president
- The data was released ahead of the “Pilipinas Debate 2016” held last Sunday
MANILA, Phillipines – The Duterte-Cayetano tandem is leading all candidates; at least on Facebook engagements. This was revealed in the recent report from the most popular social media platform.
The data, which was released ahead of the “Pilipinas Debte 2016” in Cagayan De Oro City last Sunday, showed Davao City Mayor emerging as the most-talked about presidential candidate on social networking site with 59 % of unique Facebook users engaging in conversations about him.
A far second is former Interior Secretary and Liberal Party (LP) bet Mar Roxas who got 42 %. He is followed by Senator Grace Poe with 31% and Vice President and opposition candidate Jejomar Binay who garnered 20 %.
Surprisingly, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, the most followed candidate on social media, got only 13 %.
Facebook’s head of APAC Public Policy, Elizabeth Hernandez, told ABS-CBN News that there have been 49-million active Filipino users in the country from November 30, 2015 to February 15, 2015. Out of that number, there were 45-million election-related conversations generated from 8.2-million users.
Vice president
For vice presidential candidates, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, is the subject of 49% of Facebook users during the same period to top all rivals.
Cayetano is followed behind by Senator Bongbong Marcos (37%), Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo (30%), Senator Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero (14%) and Senator Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan (2%).
Hernandez explained the social media has become the main platform for online users to to make ‘authentic’ discussions on politics, especially that the coming presidential election is just a few months away.
“It’s a place for citizens to learn about candidates, for friends to debate political issues, and for candidates to reach voters” Hernandez said. “They are having unfiltered conversations about important public policy issues and getting honest feedback from voters.”
Among other election-related topics, transparency is the most-discussed on Facebook with 64% uniques users talking about the subject.
It si followed by economy (34 %), education (25 %), social welfare (21 %), defense and foreign policy (21 %), health (16 %), infrastructure (7 %), environment (2 %) and trafficking (1 %).
Hernandez added that the number of Facebook engagement is expected to rise further after the first-ever presidential debate, and in the weeks leading to the May election.
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