Duterte, Cayetano most talked-about bets on Facebook

A month before the May 9 polls, presidential aspirant Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and his running mate Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano emerged as the most talked-about candidates on Facebook, data from the social networking giant showed.

Facebook data showed that Duterte accounted for more than half or 64 percent of conversations about presidential candidates on the platform from Nov. 20, 2015, to April 5, 2016, while Cayetano registered 44 percent and edged out front-runner Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (35 percent), who led the conversations in early March.

The tough-talking mayor was followed by administration bet Mar Roxas (47 percent), who was the most talked about candidate after the second presidential debate in Cebu and had generated 3 percent more conversations since March.

Sen. Grace Poe came in third with 40 percent, opposition leader Vice President Jejomar Binay at fourth with 27 percent, and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago with 19 percent.

Ahead of the Commission on Elections-mandated vice presidential debate at University of Santo Tomas on Sunday, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo was the third most discussed VP candidate on Facebook with 33 percent, followed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (20 percent), Sen. Francis Escudero (16 percent), and Sen. Gringo Honasan (3 percent).

Facebook said a total of 15.2 million people have engaged in election-related conversations within the given time frame, generating 124 million interactions (post, like, comment, share) on the platform.

The social network defines election-related conversation as “any post or comment that contains highly specific and targeted keywords or hashtags related to either the election itself, a candidate, a party, or a specific topic that might be playing a large role in the election itself.”

Transparency remained the most talked-about election issue among netizens with 66 percent, but there had been an increase in conversations about education (30 percent), social welfare (25 percent), health (15 percent), and environment (3 percent) since March. Economy was also a highly talked about topic with 30 percent. RC