With less than two years before the presidential elections, several politicians and private sector executives are among the potential candidates for the highest post in the land in the May 2022 national and local polls.

According to the sentiment analysis in the social media platform-Facebook by research firm-BluePrint.PH, and its Singapore-based partner on Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence, 16 are likely candidates for the presidential post.

Among them are Senators Bong Go, Manny Pacquiao, Risa Hontiveros, Grace Poe, Pia Cayetano, and Tito Sotto; and former senators Bongbong Marcos and Manny Villar.

Others are Vice President Leni Robredo, former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Leyte 4th District Rep. Lucy Torres- Gomez.

The names of Davao Mayor Sara Duterte, Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno, and businessman Ramon Ang are also in the list.

Eero Brillantes, BluePrint.PH chief executive officer, said the sentiment analysis was based on the social media data extracted from June 1, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2020 scanning a total of 344.761 million data points or Facebook engagement such as likes, shares, reactions and comments.

“If we go by our big data metrics, about 16 names are frequently being mentioned on social media, particularly Facebook, as potential presidential candidates,” he said in a statement.

“All have paths to the presidency. Social media networking activities alone through Facebook can generate 22 percent-35 percent of the votes in 2022,” Brillantes added.

He said there are four components to a serious campaign – ground game, the air war through mainstream media, network engineering (social media), and big data for decision support.

Brillantes said the 16 names have at least one of these components, but none have all the four components.

“Social media will be a major battleground at 22 percent-35 percent potential votes. The ground game and mainstream media through advertising and public relations will account for the 65 percent to 78 percent of vote generational potential,” he said.

Brillantes said Big Data will be crucial in determining the right messaging and priority spending across many segments of the electorate.

Blueprint.PH also did a tandem engagement analysis of potential presidential candidates based on the social media and traditional media of 16 personalities.

It said political personalities with the highest media coverage on traditional media and posted on Facebook are Robredo followed by Pacquiao, and Moreno.

The Manila mayor also ranked highest in the ability to engage social media influencers to promote ideas that could generate interest and potential votes, followed by Robredo, Go, Pacquiao, Duterte, Marcos, Remula, Hontiveros, Sotto, Poe, Cayetano, Diokno, Torres-Gomez, Cayetano, Ang and Villar. CURRENTPH