SAN JOSE CITY?Who?s ahead? Start counting ?munggo? (mung beans).

This ?munggo survey,? conducted by a local bookstore to gauge its patrons? choice for the next president, may not employ scientific means, but it gives a window as to who some of them want to see in Malacañang this year.

Based on the volume of beans placed in mineral water bottles at Pandayan Bookshop, Nacionalista Party (NP) standard-bearer Manuel Villar was leading the pack of nine presidential candidates.

Dante Cruz, the store manager, said the survey was also being conducted in Pandayan?s 32 branches in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite and Nueva Ecija.

Cruz said the survey, which started on Feb. 9 when the official campaign period started for candidates running for national posts, was the brainchild of Gerardo Cabochan Jr., who heads the company running the bookstore.

2004 experience

A similar survey was conducted here in the 2004 presidential race.

In the run-up to the May 2004 presidential election, the munggo survey showed the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. leading President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. While Ms Arroyo was declared the eventual winner, she was defeated by Poe in Nueva Ecija.

?It was just for fun. But it is also meant to get the public?s pulse on their choice for the next president,? he said in Filipino.

Trailing Villar in the survey were Sen. Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino III of the Liberal Party, former President Joseph Estrada of the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino, and former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

Cruz said all customers of the bookshop?students, teachers, employees of government and private offices, parents and out-of-school youths?were potential respondents.

Bookstore personnel also do not distinguish if those participating in the survey are registered voters.

One bean, one vote

Customers are given a mung bean each at the counter as they pay for the items they bought. They are then asked if they want to participate in the survey and if they agree, they would be asked to drop the seed in any of the bottles at the store entrance.

The empty water bottles bearing the names of candidates are fastened on a small platform. Above the bottles is a panel board with the question, ?Sino ang susunod na pangulo (Who will be the next president)??

Beneath the panel are caricatures of nine presidential candidates?Villar, Aquino, Estrada, Teodoro, John Carlos ?JC? de los Reyes, Sen. Richard Gordon, Bro. Eddie Villanueva, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, and Nicanor Perlas.

No pressure, please

Cruz said the store?s employees were given strict orders not to pressure or influence respondents while casting their seeds. A security guard is on hand to help participants, as well as stop possible manipulation of results by making sure that they would drop only the seed given them at the counter.

The survey ends on the eve of the May 10 elections. Results from all branches of Pandayan will be tallied and the final tally will be announced by bookshop officials.