Presidential candidates Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares chat during a break in the Presidential Debates 2016 held in Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro City.
INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Grace Poe are statistically tied in first place in the five-way race to Malacañang less than three weeks before the May 9 elections, according to the results of a poll conducted by The Standard newspaper.
Nationwide, 30 percent of 3,000 respondents who are registered voters picked Duterte as their next President, while 27 percent selected Poe.
Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas was in third place with 21 percent, followed by Vice President Jejomar Binay with 18 percent, and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago with 2 percent.
The poll, which had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 1.8 percent, was conducted on March 26 to April 1 in 79 provinces and 40 highly urbanized cities.
Junie Laylo, the resident pollster of The Standard, attributed Duterte’s steady increase to the respondents’ desire for someone who they think can solve the country’s most important problems among the five presidential candidates.
In the last poll in February, all the presidential aspirants—Poe (26 percent), Duterte (24 percent), Binay (23 percent) and Roxas (22 percent)—except for Santiago (2 percent), were in a statistical tie.
The survey, the results of which were released Tuesday on The Standard’s website, also found that Senators Francis Escudero and Bongbong Marcos are virtually tied in the vice presidential race.
Twenty-eight percent selected Escudero while 25 percent chose Marcos. Following them were Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo (21 percent) and Senators Alan Peter Cayetano (15 percent), Antonio Trillanes IV (5 percent) and Gringo Honasan (3 percent).
Meanwhile, Sen. Vicente Sotto III, a reelectionist, is the leading senatorial candidate with a voter preference of 51 percent.
Completing the top 12 are Francis Pangilinan (45 percent), Senators Ralph Recto (43 percent) and Franklin Drilon (43 percent), former senators Panfilo Lacson (39 percent) and Juan Miguel Zubiri (37 percent), former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) director general Joel Villanueva (37 percent), Akbayan party-list member Risa Hontiveros (36 percent), Valenzuela City Rep. Win Gatchalian (35 percent), Sen. Teofisto Guingona III (31 percent), Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez (31 percent) and former Sen. Richard Gordon (31 percent). Inquirer Research