As in Pulse survey, Aquino leads in SWS

A day after Pulse Asia survey showed Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd with a commanding lead among presidential candidates, another poll by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) also found him ahead in the Palace race with similar figures.

“From the list of 11 presidential candidates, 46 percent chose Benigno Aquino 3rd, 27 percent Manuel Villar Jr., 16 percent Joseph Estrada, 5 percent Gilbert Teodoro Jr., 1 percent Eduardo Villanueva, and 1 percent Richard Gordon,” according to the SWS poll conducted in partnership with BusinessWorld newspaper.

Other Palace aspirants received less than 1 percent: Sen. Jamby Madrigal (0.2 percent), lawyer Oliver Lozano (0.1 percent), Mario Crespo (0.1 percent), John Carlos de los Reyes (0.1 percent) and Jesus Nicanor Perlas (0.03 percent).

Some 4 percent of the respondents did not give an answer.

In the Pulse Asia survey, Aquino had 45 percent, Villar 23 percent, Estrada 19 percent and Teodoro 5 percent.

Gibo sees gains

Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, the presidential candidate of Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), said on Tuesday that he was not bothered about trailing so far behind. He noted the improvement in his ratings from 3 percent to 5 percent in the Pulse Asia poll.

“We are making excellent progress,” Teodoro said.

He added that he believes that voting results, not the pre-election surveys, would determine the winners in the 2010 presidential elections, and that a lot of things could happen between now and the election day in May 2010.

Rep. Mitos Magsaysay of Zambales, Teodoro’s spokesman, was also optimistic. “The election is more than four months away, and we continue to be encouraged by the growing excitement that Secretary Gibo Teodoro has begun to generate among young and thoughtful Filipinos in many areas of the country,” she added.

Estrada optimistic

Estrada’s spokesman, Margaux Salcedo, said also on Tuesday that the Pulse Asia survey showed that the former president has captured the young supporters of Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

Escudero was the presidential candidate of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), but he resigned from the party then eventually withdrew from the Palace race.

Salcedo noted that in the Pulse Asia survey Estrada improved across all demographics, the biggest gain was among respondents who were 18 to 24 years old.

“This is significant, because these are voters who were only 8 to 14 years old when former President Estrada became president in 1998 and would generally be unaware, for sheer reason of their youth, of the legacy of President Erap and his contributions to the poor,” she said.

SWS on running mates
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Also in the latest SWS Survey released Tuesday, Senators Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd and Loren Legarda led the vice presidential candidates.

“From the list of eight vice presidential candidates, 43 percent chose Manuel Roxas, 32 percent Loren Legarda, 10 percent Jejomar Binay, 3 percent Eduardo Manzano, and 2 percent Bayani Fernando,” SWS reported.

Candidates for the vice presidency who got less than a percent were broadcaster Jose “Jay” Sonza (0.3 percent) and former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Perfecto Yasay (0.1 percent).

In the Philippines, vice president is elected separately from the president.

Senate candidates

In the senatorial race, SWS reported that Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago (55 percent), Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. (54 percent) and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada (53 percent) emerged as the top three picks of respondents.

The respondents in the SWS poll were aided by list of 66 names of Senate aspirants.

The top-12 pick were Pilar Juliana “Pia” Cayetano (48 percent), Franklin Drilon (47 percent), Ralph Recto (44 percent), Vicente Sotto 3rd (40 percent), Juan Ponce Enrile (37 percent), Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (32 percent), Sergio Osmeña 3rd (31 percent), Teofisto “TG” Guingona 3rd (24 percent) and Manuel “Lito” Lapid (23 percent).

SWS said that “within the bounds of statistical error” were Jose “Joey” de Venecia 3rd (21 percent), Rozzano Rufino Biazon (20 percent), Sonia Roco (18 percent) and Gwendolyn Pimentel (17 percent).

Far behind were Jose Apolinario “Jun” Lozada Jr. (16 percent) and Francisco “Kit” Tatad (also 16 percent), Alexander Lacson (15 percent), Gilbert Cesar Remulla (10 percent), Ramon “Monmon” Mitra (9 percent) and Danilo Lim (also 9 percent) and Adel Tamano (8 percent).

The SWS survey was conducted from December 5 to 10, 2009, using face-to-face interviews of 2,100 adults. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percent.–Rommel C. Lontayao Reporter with reports from Jefferson Antiporda and Ruben D. Manahan 4th, Manila Times