Villar leads top picks to succeed Arroyo

CEBU, Philippines - Sen. Manny Villar, Vice-President Noli de Castro and Sen. Mar Roxas are the three top picks of the people to succeed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2010 based on the April 16 to May 6 survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The survey question asked was, “Sa ilalim ng kasalukuyang Konstitusyon, ang termino ni Pang. Arroyo ay hanggang sa taong 2010 lamang at magkakaroon ng halalan para sa pagka-pangulo sa Mayo 10, 2010. Sinu-sino sa palagay ninyo ang mga magagaling na lider na dapat pumalit kay Pang. Arroyo bilang Presidente? Maaari po kayong magbanggit ng hanggang tatlong sagot.” (Under the present Constitution, the term of Pres. Arroyo is up to 2010 only, and there will be an election for a new President in May 2010. Who do you think are good leaders who should succeed Pres. Arroyo as President? You may give up to three names).

To that question, 29 percent named Villar, 21 percent named Vice-President De Castro, and, 18 paercent named Sen. Mar Roxas.

Villar’s ranking jumped from 18 percent in September 2007 to 25 percent in June 2008 and to 26 percent in February this year or an increase of 11 percentage points from September 07, 2007.

De Castro dropped from 27 percent in February this year.

Roxas, who is the third top choice, climbed from 15 percent in February.

Sen. Francis Escudero is ranked fourth with 15 percent from 23 percent while Sen. Loren Legarda got 14 percent from 25 percent in the same period.

The other Top 10 choices are: former president Joseph Estrada, 13 percent; Sen. Panfilo Lacson, 12 percent; Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, 2 percent; and, Gloria Arroyo with 2 percent.

Twenty percent could not give an answer and 9 percent had no one to recommend.

The survey was conducted over April 16-May 6, 2009 using face-to-face interviews of 7,000 registered voters with an error margin of +/- 1.2 percent. - PR (THE FREEMAN)