Presidential candidate Senator Manny Pacquiao’s latest Pulse Asia survey rankings placed him as the “dark horse” in the coming national elections, his camp said Wednesday.

Pacquiao’s campaign manager, Buddy Zamora in a television interview said, “My thought has always been that we are the dark horse in this 2022 elections. You won’t be the dark horse if you’re number 1 or number 2 but at number 3 that’s really the dark horse position. You’re not expected to win but you can expect perhaps an upset in frontrunners”.

In the latest poll, Pacquiao overtook presidential rival Isko Moreno Domagoso with 7 against 4 percent to place third, behind former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s 56 percent and Vice President Leni Robredo’s 23 percent.

Zamora believes Pacquiao can still pull a win on May 9, given the candidate’s programs.

“Yes, these are just numbers of the survey but we are standing on two legs. We have a massive libreng pabahay (free housing) campaign, where we promise free housing to all those who would need a house in case we win.” He added.

He said the campaign predicts about 12 million votes for the senator based on the 35 million applications for Pacquiao’s housing program.

Zamora also shared they are banking on the support of Christian voters.

“We expect the winning vote to be somewhere around from 16 million to 20 million, I think these numbers will make out for the winner of the presidential elections like President Duterte won on 16.8 million in 2016.” He said.

The pre-electoral survey which was conducted from April 16 to 21, 2022, is based on a sample of 2,400 registered voters aged 18 years old and above and has a ± 2 percent error margin at a 95 percent confidence level.