SWS survey shows admin candidates ahead in voter preference
MANILA, Philippines—Administration candidates continued to have the edge in terms of voter preference, results of the latest Social Weather Stations survey show.
The survey, first reported in the BusinessWorld newspaper, found that nine candidates of the administration-backed Team PNoy had a statistical chance of winning a Senate seat if the elections were held in March.
Team PNoy is an alliance of candidates from the Liberal Party, Nacionalista Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, PDP Laban and Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino.
Only three candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance made it to the list of probable winners.
As in previous surveys, Sen. Loren Legarda (NPC/Team PNoy) topped the latest SWS survey, with 59 percent of adults saying they would vote for her, down from 64 percent in the previous survey.
Article continues after this advertisementSen. Alan Peter Cayetano (NP/Team PNoy) was in 2nd place with 57 percent.
Article continues after this advertisementSan Juan Rep. JV Ejercito (UNA) surged to third to fourth places from ninth to tenth places with 48 percent, tied with Sen. Francis Escudero (independent/Team PNoy, 48 percent). Escudero lost 14 percentage points and slipped from second to third place in the previous round.
Tied in fifth to seventh places were Nancy Binay (UNA), former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar (NP/Team PNoy) and Sen. Koko Pimentel (PDP-Laban/Team PNoy) with 47 percent.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (NP/Team PNoy, 44 percent) was on 8th place, while Sen. Gringo Honasan (UNA) rose to 9th place with 43 percent, up from 15th place in the last survey.
President Aquino’s cousin Benigno Paolo “Bam” Aquino (LP, 42 percent) was on10th place, followed by former Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chief Grace Poe (independent/Team PNoy, 40 percent), who slipped to 11th place from fifth to sixth places in the previous survey.
Completing the winning circle was Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara (LP, 39 percent), who was on 12th place.
The survey, conducted from March 15 to March 17, used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 registered voters nationwide and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.