Binay pulls away from Legarda, has Roxas in sight

SENATOR Manuel Roxas II maintained his lead in the vice presidential race while Senator Loren Legarda continued to lose ground to Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, the latest Manila Standard survey showed.

The poll, with a margin of error of 2 percent, showed Roxas ahead at 38 percent nationwide, followed by Binay at 28 percent and Legarda at 20 percent.

Legarda lost three percentage points, while Binay picked up six. Administration bet Eduardo Manzano had 3 percent, while former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Bayani Fernando had 2 percent.

All the other candidates had ratings of 1 percent or lower.

Binay picked up most of his support from very poor voters, said Pedro Laylo Jr., resident pollster at the Manila Standard. Roxas and Legarda lost three percentage points in each in Metro Manila, while Binay gained five points.

Legarda also lost five points in South and Central Luzon, where Binay picked up six points.

Among the high-income group, Roxas lost eight points to 41 percent, while Binay gained eight points to 34 percent. Legarda gained 2 percent.

Binay picked up 11 points among the very poor voters, moving his vote share to 28 percent. Roxas lost nine percentage points and Legarda two in the same income group.

Legarda said she was not concerned by Binay’s recent gains in the opinion surveys, telling a crowd on the campaign trail that in her long years as a politician, she had never met a person who admitted that he or she had taken a survey from any of the established research companies. –Manila Standard Today