Gibo climbs up the polls

SLOWLY and steadily Lakas-Kampi CMD presidential candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. has climbed up the polls, maintaining his second-place ranking in the latest survey conducted by the independent research firm Campaigns & Image Group, with a 26 percent rating among young voters that comprise almost half of the electorate in this year’s May 10 presidential election.

The survey showed Nacionalista Party standard-bearer and Senator Manny Villar as the frontrunner with a 33 percent rating, followed by Teodoro, and then by Liberal Party bet and Senator Noynoy Aquino with 25 percent among voters aged 18 to 28.

Respondents in the 18 to 28 age bracket represent roughly 25 million registered voters based on data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the research firm said.

Campaigns & Image Inc., which conducted the survey for the period ending April 5, based its tracking polls on the latest available Comelec data on the number of voters representing various age brackets.

Respondents from the 29 to 39 age group represent about 15.8 million registered voters, while those from the 40 to 51 age group correspond to 6.12 million voters. Respondents who were 52 years old and above represented roughly 4.1 million voters.

For the 29 to 39 age bracket, Villar registered a 10 percent rating followed by Aquino with 7 percent and Teodoro with 6 percent. The number of undecided for this age bracket was still high at 69 percent.

For voters 40 to 51 years old, Villar again ranked first with 8 percent, followed by Aquino with 4 percent and Teodoro, 3 percent, with the number of undecided at 77 percent.

Thirty-four percent of voters aged 52 and above chose Villar, 26 percent picked Teodoro, and 16 percent want Aquino to be the country’s next president.

In a separate nationwide survey reportedly done with the assistance of the European Union and the US Federation of International Entrepreneurs between March 1 to 30, Villar ranked first with 24.7 percent, followed by Teodoro with 22.87 percent, Aquino with 19 percent and Pwersa ng Masa standard-bearer and former president Joseph Estrada, 9 percent.

The survey, which was conducted among 11,000 respondents from Aparri to Tawi-Tawi based on social classification, had a margin of error of 2 percent.

In separate surveys conducted nationwide by broadcast media giant Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) through the month of March, Teodoro snagged first place in one city and numbers two or three in other parts of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Asked who they would choose as the next president of the Philippines should elections be held tomorrow, residents of Sorsogon city surveyed from March 9 to 11, gave the former defense secretary 50 percent of their vote, Villar, 25.8 percent, Aquino, 19.2 percent, and Estrada, 3.3 percent.

The same survey, this time conducted from March 6 to 7 in Vigan City placed Teodoro in second behind Villar, but ahead of Aquino, John Carlos de los Reyes, Eddie Villanueva and Estrada.

Teodoro placed third in RMN surveys (behind Aquino and Villar) in Pagadian City (conducted during the March 4 to 7 period); Cauayan, Isabela (March 2 to 6); Baguio City (March 4 to 5); Laoag City (March 5 to 6); Tuguegarao City (March 15 to 16); Ormoc City (March 6 to 7); San Carlos City (March 5 to 6); Dumaguete City (March 6 to 7); and Metro Bacolod (March 5 to 6).

The 1989 bar topnotcher and Harvard-trained lawyer edged out Estrada in third place in the RMN survey conducted for the rest of Luzon (March 2 to 16), and breathed heavily behind the necks of Villar and Aquino in the survey for the rest of the Visayas (March 2 to 9).

Teodoro also came in fist or second in the latest mock polls in universities or universities, proving anew his apparent lock on the votes of students and other young voters, who comprise a majority of this year’s voters.

rjottings@yahoo.com  –RANDOM JOTTINGS, Manila TImes