Pulse Asia discredits survey showing Duterte as front-runner

Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Sen. Grace Poe and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. LYN RILLON/Philippine Daily Inquirer

Pollster Pulse Asia on Monday disowned a survey which it supposedly conducted showing Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as the front-runner in the presidential race.

A post on the “Pompee La Viña – Duterte 2016″ claimed that Duterte was chosen by 26 percent of 4,000 respondents as their top presidential bet in a March 21-25 survey supposedly conducted by Pulse Asia.

Senator Grace Poe supposedly dropped to second place with 24 percent, followed by administration bet Manuel “Mar” Roxas II with 21 percent, and Vice President Jejomar Binay in third place with 19 percent.

Read: Poe regains lead; Binay, Roxas, Duterte in ‘statistical tie’—Pulse Asia

The false survey has been shared more than 1,300 times and got 1,500 likes from Facebook users as of this writing.

In a statement sent to INQUIRER.net, Pulse Asia said that it did not conduct the survey.

“It has come to our attention that a survey allegedly conducted from March 21 to 25 for ABS-CBN is being attributed to Pulse Asia. We did not conduct said survey. We do not conduct surveys during Holy Week, Holy Thursday and Good Friday in particular,” the statement read.

The pollster urged the public to refer to their website for their official releases.

The latest official survey conducted by Pulse Asia was the ABS-CBN commissioned poll which showed Poe in the lead with 28 percent.

READ: Poe keeps lead in latest Pulse Asia poll

Poe is followed by Duterte with 24 percent, Binay with 23 percent, Roxas with 19 percent and Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago with 2 percent.

The ABS-CBN commissioned survey was conducted from March 15 to 20. JE