MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) While nine presidential candidates were exchanging and copying each other’s arguments in the first debate sponsored by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) at a plush hotel venue in Pasay City, former Senator Bongbong Marcos was being cheered by tens of thousands of supporters at a grand rally in Marikina City.

Soon after, The Adobo Chronicles conducted a unique, anonymous survey among likely voters using photos of the nine debate participants. We say ”anonymous” because we asked respondents to arrange the bottom images of the candidates according to how they would rank them as their choice for president.

This was how the respondents lined up and ranked their favored candidates — from left to right.

It was obvious that the least favored candidate was Leni Robredo, but it could not be determined how each of the remaining male candidates were ranked by the respondents.

Since Marcos skipped the debate, we asked respondents for a thumbs up or down response to his Marikina grand rally. The result? Marcos increased his numbers from 65 to 80%, with less than 50 days remaining in the campaign.