Grace Poe amazes in SWS, too
Sen. Grace Poe. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Sen. Grace Poe now holds a commanding position in the race for Malacañang next year, after overtaking Vice President Jejomar Binay in a second voter preference poll.
The Second Quarter 2015 Social Weather Report, conducted by pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) from June 5 to June 8, showed 42 percent of voters citing Poe as their preferred presidential candidate and 34 percent picking Binay, who dropped to second place after dominating the polls for the past nine months.
The SWS survey released on Friday was the second to show Poe as the new front-runner in the 2016 presidential election.
On Wednesday, the pollster Pulse Asia released the results of a survey conducted from May 30 to June 5 showing Poe zooming past Binay, with 30 percent of voters picking her as their preferred leader to take the place of President Benigno Aquino III in Malacañang next year. Binay dropped to second place, with 22 percent.
“I am truly humbled by the latest SWS survey results. I am very grateful that more people appreciate the kind of public service that I strive to uphold—transparent, honest and efficient,” Poe said in a statement.
Poe, however, still refused to say whether she would run for higher office next year.
The junior senator emerged as a presidential contender after President Aquino’s reform program ran into questions of continuity with Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the presumptive standard-bearer of the ruling Liberal Party, unpopular with voters and Binay, who is accused of corruption during his term as mayor of Makati as the strongest candidate.
Binay’s camp tried to arrest Poe’s rise by questioning her Philippine residency and citizenship, even bringing up the matter of her being an adopted child of the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. and actress Susan Roces.
The attack backfired on Binay, whose falling ratings finally plunged and he lost his lead in the Pulse Asia and SWS polls.
READ: A ‘foundling’: UNA claims new dope on Poe
Binay on Wednesday called the Pulse Asia survey results “a wake-up call” and on Friday humbly accepted the results of the SWS poll.
Public pulse
“The Vice President respects the survey results. He sees them as barometers of the pulse of the public at a point in time. He will continue to listen to the people,” the Vice President’s spokesperson, Joey Salgado, said in a statement.
READ: Despite rating drop, Binay says SWS poll shows ‘unwavering support’
Binay’s camp, however, expressed optimism that the former front-runner continued to enjoy wide public support despite the allegations of corruption thrown at him and his family by his detractors.
“Despite the relentless attacks from his opponents, Vice President Jejomar Binay is thankful for the unwavering support as reflected in the SWS survey,” Salgado said.
As shown by the SWS survey, the proportion of those who cited Poe as among the best leaders to succeed President Aquino when he steps down in 2016 has steadily increased from 21 percent in December, to 31 percent in March and 42 percent in June.
The proportion of those who cited Binay was at 37 percent in December and 36 percent in March.
Respondents were not given any list and were allowed up to three names.
Other preferences
Others mentioned were Roxas (21 percent from 15 percent in March), Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (20 percent, from 15 percent), Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada (7 percent from 11 percent), former Sen. Panfilo Lacson (7 percent from 1 percent), Sen. Francis Escudero (4 percent from 8 percent), Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago (4 percent from 11 percent), Sen. Bongbong Marcos (3 percent from 7 percent), Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano (2 percent from 4 percent), former Sen. Manny Villar (1 percent from 3 percent), Sen. Loren Legarda (unchaged at 1 percent) and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (1 percent from 3 percent).
Nine percent answered “none,” while 5 percent said they don’t know.
The survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults nationwide and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.
Roxas encouraged
Roxas, expecting to be endorsed by President Aquino as the administration’s presidential candidate, saw the improvement of his standing as an encouragement to proceed with his “preparation” to carry on the government’s reform program.
READ: Despite nonendorsement, Roxas thanks Aquino for kind words
“It fortifies my resolve to prepare and help continue the good things [that] happened under the daang matuwid in whatever capacity,” Roxas told reporters, using the administration’s slogan for its reform program.
“I thank the people for the added trust they have given me,” he said.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., LP vice chair, saw the 2016 field as “wide open.”
“Any of them can still make it,” Belmonte said.
Poe vs. Duterte?
But the election could shape up to be a battle between Poe and the tough-talking Duterte, whose survey numbers have been on an upward trajectory, according to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.
READ: In the end, it will be Poe vs Duterte
Pimentel, president of Duterte’s PDP-Laban party, also said the party would begin preparing for a possible Duterte campaign for the presidency even if the Davao City mayor had yet to declare an intention to run.
The PDP-Laban is assuming that Duterte will join the race, based on his actions, he said.
“We will give instructions to all party mates to prepare even without a formal announcement. We’re reading between the lines, reading body motions and reading actions. We’re assuming he’s running,” he said.
Duterte’s standing is fast improving. He is ranked third in the Pulse Asia survey and fourth in the SWS poll and Pimentel believes the trend will continue.
He said Duterte could overtake Binay and emerge as Poe’s closest rival.
Roxas hard to read
As for Roxas, Pimentel said he found him hard to read.
Roxas would be a “welcome addition” to the race, he said. “But I feel it’s about new faces. Roxas has been in the political scene for the longest time.”
Pimentel also said the Binay camp should not blame the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee, which he chairs, for his declining numbers.
The subcommittee has been conducting a long-running inquiry into allegations of corruption against Binay and his family.
Pimentel said Binay had all the opportunity to rebut the allegations, most of which came from former Makati colleagues, but refused to do so.
Binay should blame the people who committed the questionable acts tackled in the hearings, he added.
Friendly talks
Pimentel said he was surprised that there were 22 percent of the people, based on the Pulse Asia survey results, who still wanted Binay for President despite his refusal to respond to serious allegations against him.
Meanwhile, the PDP-Laban and Nacionalista Party have been in friendly talks, but there has been no agreement on a partnership of any kind.
Sen. Cynthia Villar of the NP said the party would consider supporting candidates from outside the group only if none of its members would decide to run for higher posts.
Senators Marcos and Cayetano earlier indicated an openness to running for President, while Senator Trillanes said he had plans of running for Vice President.
Villar said the NP may give them until July to make up their minds. She said there was no condition from the party for them to get a certain survey rating in order to get NP support.
But she did give them pragmatic advice.
“I told them that if their chances of winning are low, do not waste your money,” she said in a press briefing.
No merger
Pimentel said that in meeting with the NP, he wanted to see its commonalities with the PDP-Laban so that they could find ideological or philosophical basis for any future collaboration.
He was not seeking a merger, he said.
He also said he intended to reach out to other parties as well, such as Lakas-CMD, National Unity Party, Nationalist People’s Coalition, and the Liberal Party. With reports from Niña P. Calleja, Marlon Ramos, DJ Yap and Inquirer Research
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