If the mid-term polls scheduled next year are to be held on the dates the Pulso ng Pilipino pre-poll survey was conducted, nine of the pro-administration coalition bets are good as elected with only three candidates surviving the administration’s juggernaut.

            Topping the pre-poll survey is Party List Representative and broadcaster Erwin Tulfo with 61%. In second place is former Senate President Tito Sotto III with 57%. Another Tulfo – Bienvenido or Ben who is popularly known as Bitag is in third with 54%.

            Reelectionist Sen. Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go who rides on his Malasakit health assistance program is in fourth spot with 49%. Another incumbent who is seeking a second term is Sen. Pia Cayetano with 44% and former Senator and boxing icon Manny Pacquiao rounds up the top six spots with 43%

            The second half of the Magic 12 is spearheaded by a resurging Sen. Bong Revilla in seventh to eight place with 41% in a statistical tie with Senate Majority Floor Leader Francis ‘Tol’ Tolentino with 39%.  Tolentino is one of only five lawyers in the 19th Senate compared the Senate in pre-martial law days when almost all Senators, except for the late Ninoy Aquino were all legal luminaries.

            Sen. Imee Marcos is in a statistical tie for ninth to 10th place with Makati Mayor Abby Binay with 38% and 37%, respectively.

            Rounding up the Magic 12 are Sen. Bato dela Rosa with 31% and former Sen. Ping Lacson with 30%. Waiting for the right timing to barge into the Magic 12 are Las Pinas Rep. Camille Villar with 27%, former Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos also with 27%, Sen. Lito Lapid with 24% and former Sen. Kiko Pangilinan with 23%.

            With a statistical chance of making it to the Senate next year are TV host Willie Revillame with 22% the same output of Ilocos political kingpin Chavit Singson. Prominent healthcare provider Doc Willie Ong is in 19th place with 20% and Party List Representative Rodante Marcoleta is in 20th place with 19%.

             As with other recent polls, next year’s elections will certainly be another media-driven campaign particularly in the social media sector where trolls unleashed by the Administration have noticeably become more active in recent days. In the cross hair of these trolls and pro-administration demolition teams are Sen. Bato dela Rosa whose ranking has been slipping away following the failed Senate hearings on the so-called PDEA leaks.

            The former PNP chief who has been dragged into the drug war campaign of the former Duterte Administration has incurred the ire of the powers that be when he allowed Jonathan Morales - a dismissed civilian agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to take center stage in the Senate hearing that tried to link President Bongbong Marcos as a user of illegal drugs.

            The hearings with Morales as the primary witness who should have been vetted to ascertain the authenticity of his damaging claims were regarded as a political fiasco in that besides the conjectures and assumptions there were no direct testimonies that could tie in the President to illegal drugs.

            Sen. Bong Go who is considered as a cinch for reelection is also now in the same boat as recent information which apparently are fed by the Administration to their social media demolition trolls have linked the Davao senator to the extra judicial killings (EJKs) that were perpetrated during the Duterte Administration.

            Should this campaign to demolish the two pro-Duterte legislators succeed, the Senate polls next year could end up with 11 pro-administration senators with only Ben Tulfo emerging as a lone survivor of the administration’s well-oiled political machinery.  # # #