Duterte, Cayetano top Mindanao university elections survey

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte and running mate Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano are the winners for president and vice president, respectively, in an independent election survey conducted by Mindanao State University–Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT).

Duterte was the runaway winner, taking 63.94 percent or 624 out of 976 respondents. Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago was a far second with 14.03 percent.

Sen. Grace Poe, who topped elections preference surveys last year, came in third with 9.94 percent while Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas was fourth with 6.05 percent.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, who topped recent national elections survey, was in fifth place with 5.53 percent.

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Cayetano led the vice presidential candidates with 29.3 percent of votes while Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, who had also expressed interest in running with Duterte, came in near second with 27.46 percent.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero placed third with 14.75 percent while LP vice presidential candidate and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo came in fourth place with 10.96 per cent.

Independent candidate Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV got 10.35 percent while Binay’s running mate Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan lagged behind with 5.94 percent.

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The Transparency, Integrity, Good Governance (Tingog) organization, a sociopolitical student group at MSU-IIT, conducted the survey among students who are eligible to vote in the 2016 elections.

Only 976 respondents out of a total of 4,845 third and fourth year students participated in the survey held on Jan. 6 to 22.

Located in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte, MSU-IIT is home to 13,000 “iskolar ng bayan” and has four centers of excellence and eight centers of development as designated by the Commission on Higher Education.

Dr. Christine Godinez Ortega, acting director of Office of Publication and Information, lauded the students’ efforts for the “democratic exercise” but maintained that the students’ choices did not reflect those of the university administration. RC