Bongbong Marcos overtakes Chiz Escudero in latest survey

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS, RICHARD A. REYES/ARNOLD ALMACEN

IN SPITE of the widely publicized bashing he had been getting for alleged abuses during his father’s martial law regime, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has overtaken Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero in the tight vice presidential race, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

Marcos has surged past Escudero, enjoying a 5-percentage point lead over his closest rival.

Marcos gained 26 percent of the 1,500 adults polled for the March 30-April 2 survey. Trailing him were Escudero, 21 percent, and Rep. Leni Robredo, 19 percent.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano got 13 percent while Senators Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan and Antonio Trillanes IV each received 5 percent.

The latest SWS survey used a plus-or-minus 3-percentage point margin of error.

Marcos’s 26 percent was a point up from the March 8-11 SWS survey. Escudero’s 21 percent, on the other hand, was down from 28 percent in the same previous survey.

Compared with their ratings in the March 8-11 survey, Robredo dropped by 3 percentage points in the new survey; Cayetano and Honasan were a point up, and Trillanes remained at 5 percent.

President Aquino stepped up his attacks against Marcos since the 30th anniversary of the People Power Revolution in February. This followed an article in The New York Times, which said that Filipinos tired of the inept Aquino administration had expressed a yearning for the “Golden Age” of the Philippines under the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled under martial law for 14 years.

Escudero is taking in stride the latest SWS survey result showing him trailing Marcos.

“That is part of the challenge. It’s rare that a campaign will have a front-runner who will lead all the way. But we’ve always seen in previous elections that those at a disadvantage end up winning, while those who are odds-on favorite are not so lucky,” said Escudero in an interview during a sortie in Sta. Rosa, Laguna province, Monday.

Escudero said his team had made minor and major adjustments almost weekly since the start of the campaign last Feb. 9. But he would not elaborate.

He said his team was also adjusting to the new trend of pollsters to conduct surveys on weekly basis unlike previous elections where the surveys were done monthly due to the cost of holding these polls.

Escudero said he would continue to trust survey results even if he didn’t like the results. “From our point of view, we will always believe the worst survey that comes out so that we can plan accordingly,” Escudero said.

Escudero was confident of winning with more hard work in the last month of the campaign. Reports from Gil Cabacungan and Inquirer Research