Gibo top pick for first time

FORMER Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, the administration party standard-bearer in the May 10 elections, has overtaken the two perceived frontrunners in the latest survey conducted by independent pollster Campaigns and Images Group (CIG).

The survey results released on Friday by columnist Bobit Avila showed Teodoro getting 26 percent voter preference to emerge No. 1 followed closely by Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. in second spot with 25 percent and Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd in third place with 16 percent.

Villar is the candidate for president of the Nacionalista Party (NP) and Aquino, of the Liberal Party (LP).

Conducted April 19 to 23, the CIG survey interviewed 51,000 respondents, who were divided into different categories such as industry, service and agriculture.

The survey was commissioned by British and American firms looking to invest in the Philippines for them to be able to get unbiased sentiments of the people.

In its March survey, Campaign and Images Group showed Teodoro of the ruling coalition, Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) already in second place with a 24 percent rating, a significant improvement from his previous 18 percent in the February survey conducted by the independent pollster.

In the latest survey, Villar dropped six points from his previous rating of 31 percent in March, while Aquino continued to slide down to third position after he dropped a total of 12 points from 28 percent in February to 20 percent in March and now with only 16 percent.

Based on the CIG April results, voters in the 18- to 25-year-old bracket who represent at least 24 million voters, picked Teodoro with 33 percent, followed by Villar with 32 percent and Aquino with 21 percent.

Teodoro was also the candidate of voters 29 to 39 years old who make up 15.8 million of the total voters population, with a rating of 19 percent. Villar got 15 percent while Aquino garnered 7 percent of the votes in this age bracket.

Aquino was the top bet for voters 40 to 51 years old who represent 6.1 million of the voters population, with 19 percent, followed closely by Teodoro with 18 percent and by Villar with 15 percent.

Villar was No.1 among those 52 years old and above who represent about 4.1 million voters. Teodoro placed second and Aquino, third.

CIG surveys differ from those conducted by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia Inc. because they are not meant for publicity and are mainly for foreign business outside the Philippines looking in and preparing for policy changes in case a strong, potential winner emerges in the campaign homestretch.

The latest Pulse Asia survey showing Teodoro in fourth place was criticized by his supporters.

They then created a Facebook account to slam the survey, radio reports said also on Friday.

In the account “Hindi Ako Natanong ng survey [I was not asked in the survey],” Teodoro’s supporters claimed that the survey results failed to show the real sentiment of all the voters.

Also on Friday, the administration party bets have decided to split up and conduct separate campaign sorties in Mindanao and the Visayas in order to cover more ground as the May 10 elections draw near.

While Teodoro and several senatorial candidates held their rally in Cebu and nearby islands in the Visayas, his running mate and former Optical Media Board Chairman Edu Manzano and senatorial bet Rey Langit courted voters in Mindanao particularly in Maguindanao province.

Manzano and Langit visited the province and endorsed the candidacy of gubernatorial bet Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu.

Langit said that he and Manzano believe that peace and order would soon normalize and prevail in Maguindanao as the Mangudadatu clan led by Toto, whose wife and several relatives were gunned down on November 23, 2009 in the Maguindanao massacre, vowed not to retaliate despite what had happened.–Jefferson Antiporda and Ruben D. Manahan 4th, Manila Times