Sotto leads senatorial choices in Pulse survey

Sen. Vicente Sotto III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SEN. VICENTE “Tito” Sotto III still leads the senatorial preference for 2016 elections, while 12 other probable winners are mostly either current and former members of Congress, according to the latest Pulse Asia survey.

Of the 89 candidates for senator covered in the survey, 13 have a “statistical chance” of winning if the elections were held during the conduct of survey on Dec. 4-11.

The results of the nationwide poll released Tuesday showed that 67.9 percent of 1,800 respondents would vote for Sotto, who will be running for his second term in the Senate under the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

The acting Senate minority leader was followed by Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto (58.9 percent) and former Senators Panfilo Lacson (58.5 percent), Richard Gordon (57 percent) and Juan Miguel Zubiri (55.9 percent).

Others in the 13 winning circle were Senate President Franklin Drilon (55.1 percent), former Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan (54.5 percent), Sen. Sergio Osmeña III (49.8 percent), former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima (46.8 percent), Sarangani Rep. and boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao (40 percent), Sen. Teofisto Guingona III (38.6 percent), Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian (36 percent), and former Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros (35.7 percent).

Pulse Asia also found that 55 percent of respondents had already named their 12 senatorial candidates five months before the general elections in May 2016.

The survey, which used face-to-face interviews with 1,800 registered voters, had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2 percentage points. Inquirer Research