Villar tops Pulse Asia’s latest senatorial poll

Sen. Cynthia Villar. INQUIRER FILE

MANILA, Philippines — Reelectionist Cynthia Villar topped the latest Pulse Asia pre-election survey that was still dominated by pro-administration candidates.

Villar led in the survey released on Saturday, having a 55.9 percent voter preference.

Meanwhile, fellow reelectionist Grace Poe now had second to third place, having a 47.7 percent voter preference.

With her voter preference of 45 percent, Taguig City Rep. Pia Cayetano found herself in second to fourth place. Cayetano was followed by long-time Presidential aide Christopher “Bong” Go with a 42 percent voter preference.

Following Go was former-Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. (39.5 percent) ranking fourth to eight place, and Lito Lapid (38.5 percent) with a statistical ranking of fourth to ninth place.

Candidates who completed the first 12 slots of probable winners were former Bureau of Corrections chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa (37.9 percent, fourth to ninth place), Sonny Angara (36.3 percent, fifth to tenth place), Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos (34.1 percent, sixth to fourteenth place), Nancy Binay (32.8 percent, eight to fifteenth place), Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel (31.7 percent, ninth to fifteenth place) and JV Ejercito (31.2 percent, ninth to fifteenth place).

Meanwhile, former Senator Jinggoy Estrada was also cited as a probable winner, having a 30.8 percent voter preference and ranked ninth to fifteenth place. He was followed by opposition senatorial bet Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV (30.6 percent, ninth to fifteenth place) and Francis Tolentino (28.9 percent, tenth to fifteenth place).

Among those with a statistical chance of winning, 11 candidates belong to the administration-backed Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) coalition, one is running as an independent candidate (Poe), one from the Nationalist People’s Coalition (Lapid), one from the United Nationalist Alliance (Binay).

Aquino was once again the lone candidate from the opposing Liberal Party (LP) to enter the survey’s list of probable winners.

Pulse Asia surveyed 1,800 respondents with ages 18 years and above from May 3 to 6, about a week before the mid-term polls on May 13.  It put the margin of error at + or – 2.3 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent. (Editor: Cenon B. Bibe Jr.)