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By Rommel C. Lontayao, Reporter
Vice President Noli de Castro is
the leading contender to be the next president of the country, based
on the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released Tuesday.
Some 31 percent of the
respondents chose de Castro to succeed President Gloria Arroyo,
whose term ends in 2010. The next most popular is Senator Loren
Legarda, who got 26 percent, followed by Senate President Manuel
Villar Jr. with 25 percent.
SWS said its latest survey is not
commissioned.
The respondents were allowed to
pick three names as their answers to the question on who should be
the next president, but they were not presented with a list of names
to avoid prompting them.
The others who were chosen
include Senators Panfilo Lacson (16 percent), Francis “Chiz”
Escudero (14 percent), Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd (13 percent),
former President Joseph Estrada (11 percent) and Sen. Francis
“Kiko” Pa-ngilinan (2 percent).
Some 15 percent could not give an
answer, and 8 percent said they could not recommend anyone.
SWS said that in comparison to
the results of the survey conducted in March, the proportion of
those who mentioned the names of de Castro and Legarda went down by
four points.
It also declined by five points
for Escudero and by three points for both Roxas and Estrada.
But Villar gained eight points
and Lacson four points.
The said SWS survey was conducted
from June 27 to 30 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults,
with sampling error margins of plus or minus 3 percent for national
percentages and plus or minus 6 percent for area percentages.
Palace pleased
Malacañang said it is glad that
Vice President de Castro topped the recent SWS survey for 2010
presidential contenders, adding that this is the result of the
“good partnership between him and the President.”
”We believe that it is also due
to his sterling contribution in the government efforts to meet the
basic needs and aspirations of the Filipino people, like providing
shelter as a housing czar,” Palace Deputy Spokesman Lorelie
Fajardo said.
She added the Vice President
became popular because of his good performance as presidential
adviser on oversees workers, being the alter ego of the President on
food security, and a partner for uplifting the plight of the poor.
”But I might surmise that the
Vice President would not be too affected by this survey. He is too
focused on what he does at the moment as the second in command of
the Executive department, and politicking would be far from his
mind,” she said.
--WITH ANGELO S. SAMONTE
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