MANILA, Philippines - He's been doing well in presidential debates and mock polls, but why has presidential candidate Gilberto Teodoro Jr. failed to boost his standing in national election surveys so far?

Teodoro's camp believes the former defense secretary isn't being given enough media mileage.

"Mass media do not seem to be carrying a lot of stories about how former [defense] Sec. Teodoro is coming out in all the political debates that have been going on," said Executive Sec. Eduardo Ermita in a press briefing on Wednesday.

"At the most, they (stories about Teodoro) are in the inside stories and not in the front pages," Ermita added.

Teodoro placed first in numerous mock polls including ones organized on Facebook or by the University of the Philippines, media covering the House of Representatives, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Holy Angel University and a quick poll held after ANC's Youth 2010 presidential forum.

Some of these mock polls have been deemed "unscientific."

Teodoro, however, barely budged from his spot at 4th place in national surveys done by Pulse Asia and the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The January 2010 surveys on voters' preference for presidential candidates showed Teodoro lagging behind at 4 to 5%, compared to those in the lead like Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III of the Liberal Party (37 to 42%) and Sen. Manuel "Manny" Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party (35%).

Teodoro's survey standings increased by only 3 percentage points between October 2009 and January 2010.

GMA link a turn-off

Teodoro's campaign team admitted to ABS-CBN News that their candidate's link to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and the fact that he is the administration bet, is a major setback when winning votes.

Arroyo has the lowest trust ratings among all Philippine presidents post-1986. Teodoro's youth campaign volunteers, however, are trying to convince voters otherwise.

"I'm voting for Gibo, not for the administration. I mean, Gloria's not running for president anymore," says Mike Ong, a Team GIBO youth volunteer.

This is not the first time voters were turned off by a candidate simply because of his or her alliance with President Arroyo.

Political analysts have pointed out that former secretary Mike Defensor lost the senatorial elections in 2007 because of his affiliation to the unpopular Arroyo administration.

However, Francis Manglapus, secretary-general of Teodoro's party Lakas-Kampi-CMD, believes voters are still getting to know Teodoro.

Those who have met him so far, Manglapus says, like what they see. "I've noticed in all our sorties, where a majority of them (voters) are undecided, after hearing him, there's a sea of change," he said.

Teodoro's campaign team has also been releasing a slew of campaign ads on TV and the internet, matching the relentless TV ad exposure of Villar and Aquino.

"I think it's effective because [Teodoro's] profile now is that people know this person is competent. 'Yong galing at talino (skill and intelligence). Noynoy is seen as mabait (good). Villar is seen as a poor person who became rich. Gibo is skilled and smart," Manglapus said.

Edge over others?

Manglapus also said the administration ticket still has an ace up its sleeve: their strong local machinery.

"Erap Estrada (also a presidential candidate) has no local candidates running now under his ticket. The Liberals (Liberal Party), maybe they have about 40%. The Nacionalistas, a little more. So we have the vast majority of [local] candidates running under our ticket," he said.

Arroyo herself will be running for Congress under the Lakas-Kampi-CMD banner after she steps down as president.

Manglapus insists Aquino, who led the recent SWS election survey and who was tied with Villar in the recent Pulse Asia election survey, will not achieve a landslide victory like Estrada did in 1998.

Though his campaign team is encouraged by his mock poll and presidential debate victories, the nationwide surveys reveal that Teodoro is still far from clinching the poor's votes.

The rich and middle class, the likeliest to vote for Teodoro among other social classes, are the usual audiences of Presidential debates and internet polls.

In Pulse Asia's January 2010 survey, voters who said they prefer Teodoro over other presidential candidates at that particular time came from Classes A, B and C (12%), but only 6% came from Class D (the poor) and only 2% from Class E (very poor).

However, Manglapus says Team GIBO still has 3 months left to campaign.

Anything can happen within that time, he says, and Teodoro can still catch up. Reports from Willard Cheng and Karen Davila, ABS-CBN News. With additional reports from Kristine Servando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.