Drilon, Sotto, Pangilinan lead senatorial derby

Senate President Franklin Drilon, Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and former Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

THIRTEEN of 50 senatorial candidates have a statistical chance of winning in the May 9 elections, eight of whom are either incumbent or former senators, results of the latest Pulse Asia survey showed.

Of the probable winners, five belong to the Liberal Party, four are independent candidates, two are members of the Nationalist People’s Coalition and one each came from the Akbayan party-list group and United Nationalist Alliance, according to Pulse Asia that conducted the survey on April 5-10.

Top 13

Still leading the senatorial race are Senate President Franklin Drilon (51.6 percent), Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III (49.8 percent) and former Senators Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan (46.8 percent), Panfilo Lacson (40.8 percent) and Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri (38.9 percent).

Completing the Top 13 are boxing superstar and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao (36.3 percent), former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director General Joel Villanueva (35.6 percent), Senators Ralph Recto (35.6 percent) and Sergio Osmeña III (34.2 percent), former Sen. Richard “Dick” Gordon (33.8 percent), former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros (33.7 percent), former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima (32.3 percent) and Valenzuela City Rep. Win Gatchalian (31.5 percent).

Following the Top 13 are Sen. Teofisto Guingona III (25.3 percent), former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Francis Tolentino (23.7 percent), Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez (22.2 percent), former Tourism, Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority chief operating officer Mark Lapid (20.8 percent), Manila City Vice Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso (20.2 percent), former Optical Media Board chair Edu Manzano (15.4 percent) and former Energy Sec. Jericho Petilla (12.2 percent).

Drilon credited his No. 1 position in the survey to “meaningful laws” he had pushed in Congress and programs he supported.

In a statement, Drilon said these measures included the sin tax law, the conditional cash transfer program and PhilHealth.

Pulse Asia also found that 34 percent of 4,000 respondents, who were registered voters, had a complete slate of 12 senatorial candidates they would vote for on May 9.

The survey, commissioned by the ABS-CBN TV network, was conducted through face-to-face interviews. It had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 1.5 percent.  Inquirer Research and Leila B. Salaverria