Poe, Duterte surge in latest SWS survey
Vice President Jejomar Binay has maintained his lead in the latest survey on who Filipinos would most likely take to Malacañang.
Sen. Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, however, managed to surge in the poll conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) from March 20 to 23.
The SWS survey was conducted just three days after Poe reported out the highlights of a joint Senate inquiry into the Mamasapano incident. The daughter of the late action film king, Fernando Poe Jr., presided over the inquiry as head of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs.
The survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide and had sampling error margins of plus/minus 3 points for national percentages, and plus/minus 6 points each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The respondents were not given a list to choose from and were instead asked to give names of up to three persons whom they thought should succeed President Benigno Aquino 3rd when he steps down on June 30 next year.
The survey results show Poe, the topnotcher in the 2013 senatorial elections, narrowing the gap between her and Binay to only five percentage points.
The senator got a 31 percent rating while the Vice President, who is still on top, rated 36 percent.
Binay, however, shed one percentage point in March. He got 37 percent in December.
His satisfaction ratings continue to drop after he and his family were hounded by corruption allegations. The release of the survey results came as the Senate blue ribbon committee resumed its televised public hearings on Binay’s alleged irregularities during his term as mayor of Makati City (Metro Manila).
Poe, who started as a common candidate of the Liberal Party and the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, advanced from 21 percent in December to 31 percent in March.
Duterte, who has been touring the country to campaign for a shift to the federal form of government, also made a quantum leap, surging to 15 percent in March from just 5 percent in March.
He is now tied for third with the presumptive Liberal Party standard-bearer, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas 2nd whose ratings plummeted from 19 percent to 15 percent.
Duterte overtook four other potential candidates--Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago (11 percent), deposed president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada (11 percent) and Sen. Francis Escudero (8 percent).
Binay’s political affairs spokesman Rico Paolo Quicho welcomed the results of the survey and said the Vice President will continue working for the benefit of the people.
“The Vice President is truly grateful for the trust and recognition as shown by the results of the latest SWS presidential survey. This is defined by the competence and compassion of the Vice President as manifested in his programs in Makati especially in health and education and assisting OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] as Presidential Adviser on OFW Concerns and the gains achieved by the Pag-IBIG Fund,” Quicho said.
“The Vice President is focused on the task at hand and would continue to provide his kind of leadership and performance whoever will be the other presidential aspirants,” he added.
WITH BERNICE CAMILLE V. BAUZON