By Jose Oscar Magpusao
Photo Credits: Office of the Vice President
Vice President Leni Robredo dominated search trends on Google in the Philippines after her announcement on Thursday officially declaring her candidacy for the presidency in the 2022 national elections.
As of 3:00 p.m. Friday, the search term ‘Leni’ dwarfed contenders such as the terms ‘Bongbong’, ‘Isko’, ‘Manny’ and ‘Sara,’ with a few of the latter names receiving close to negligible spikes in increased interest during the filing of certificate of candidacy of Senator Manny Pacquiao, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno and Bongbong Marcos, with Mayor Sara Duterte still adamant about not running for the presidency.
With ‘Leni’ represented by blue, ‘Bongbong’ represented by red, ‘Isko’ represented by yellow, ‘Sara’ represented by green and ‘Manny’ represented by purple, the contrast can be seen mostly after Vice President Leni Robredo announced her bid and subsequently filed her candidacy for the position of president on October 7.
Google search trends also revealed that during the period of the filing of candidacy, the term ‘Leni’ was the most dominantly searched for term among the rest throughout the Philippines except for the Ilocos Region and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which favored the term ‘Bongbong’ and the Davao Region, which favored the term ‘Sara’.
The highest concentration of searches and the search interest rating per region for the term ‘Leni’ were in Metro Manila (100), Bicol (85) and Calabarzon(69); for the term ‘Bongbong,’ the highest searches were from Metro Manila (100), the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) (94) and Cagayan Valley (91); for the term ‘Isko, the highest searches were from Metro Manila (100), Calabarzon (87) and Central Luzon (72); for the term ‘Sara’ the highest searches were from the Davao Region (100), Metro Manila (69) and Northern Mindanao (65); and for the term ‘Manny,’ the highest searches were from Soccsksargen (100), Metro Manila (90) and Mimaropa (81).
