Loren, Chiz, Alan Peter top Pulse Asia survey anew

MANILA, Philippines – Fifteen of the 33 senatorial candidates have statistical chances of winning in the May elections, a majority of them from the administration-led coalition Team PNoy, according to results of the latest survey by Pulse Asia.

Re-electionist senators Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano topped the pre-election survey anew, which was conducted from Feb. 24 to 28.

The three senators shared 1st to 3rd places with 56.7, 54.9 and 52.8 percent, respectively. Sharing 4th to 9th places were former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar (44 percent), San Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito Estrada (43.8 percent), former National Youth Commission chair Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV (43.2 percent) and United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) deputy secretary-general Nancy Binay (42.5 percent). Former Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) chair Grace Poe-Llamanzares obtained 42.1 percent and was in 4th to 10th places, followed by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III (40.1 percent) who landed in 4th to 12th places. Completing the list of probable winners were Sen. Gregorio Honasan (37.9 percent), who landed in 8th to 13th places; Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce Enrile Jr. (36.6 percent), at 9th to 15th places, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (36.1 percent), ranked 9th to 15th places; Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara (35.1 percent) at 10th to 15th places; former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri (33.2 percent), 11th to 16th places, and former senator Richard Gordon (32.2 percent), 11th to 16th places. “Nonetheless, while the highest statistical ranking of these six candidates put them within the winners’ circle (8th to 11th places), some of them might end up not making it to the Senate given their lowest statistical ranking (13th to 16th places),” Pulse Asia said. Aquino and Poe were the biggest gainers as shown in the survey results. Between January and February, Poe and Aquino obtained significant gains in their ratings with +11.2 and +11.8 percentage points, respectively.

Poe’s rank improved from 13th to 16th place in January to 4th to 10th place in February, while Aquino went up from 13th to 15th place in January to 4th to 9th place in February.

“The other probable senatorial candidates experience marginal movements in their respective overall voter preferences,” the survey said.

The non-commissioned survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,800 registered voters nationwide, aged 18 and above. It has sampling error margins of plus or minus two percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

Meanwhile, UNA senatorial aspirant and San Juan Rep. Ejercito was elated with the result of the survey that showed him still in 5th place.

Ejercito, who got 43.8 percent rating, thanked the public for trusting him.

“The sustained strong trust being given to me by Filipino voters inspires me to do more for them,” he said.

For his part, Team PNoy spokesman Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo described the 8-4 showing of the administration candidates as clear proof that the “electorate is responding positively to a clean, issue-oriented, and message-driven campaign.”

Quimbo credited the “overwhelming dominance” of the ruling party to their “clear positive message, more than the mud-slinging campaign style coupled with hoopla and entertainment.” “This campaign has always been about issues and our people are listening, responding, and reacting to our candidates in a meaningful way. All our sorties bear this out. They no longer want the old traditional way of campaign by way of mudslinging,” he said.

Quimbo said Poe’s meteoric rise “only means that UNA lacks endorsement power,” referring to opposition’s decision to drop Poe, Legarda and Escudero as their guest candidates.

The Marikina lawmaker said the latest survey result “is a complete validation of the previous SWS poll conducted a week before the Pulse Asia surve y which showed Team PNoy candidates leading” over UNA’s.

He pointed out that the survey was conducted when the Sabah issue dominated the news headlines.

“I wonder if this time, UNA will accept these results,” he said. –-Helen Flores (The Philippine Star) with Jose Rodel Clapano, Delon Porcalla