Survey shows Poe pulling away

President Arroyo improved her rating but still trailed actor Fernando Poe Jr. who pulled away from the rest of the field in the latest election survey conducted by private think-tank IBON Foundation.

The survey, conducted Feb. 7 to 15, showed Poe garnering 30.04 percent or 3.96 percentage points higher than his previous rating of 26.08 percent in IBON’s 4th quarter survey conducted last Dec. 1 to 14.

Mrs. Arroyo received 16.05 percent of 1,315 votes, up from her previous rating of 10.5 percent from IBON’s December survey. However, she is in third place, behind former senator Raul Roco who got 19.39 percent. "Her improvement is due to the success of her campaign. She has done a good campaign. Even if you were the incumbent, you could do a very bad campaign," IBON research director Antonio Tujan Jr. said.

Roco’s rating fell by 3.07 percentage points from his previous rating of 22.46 percent in the December survey. Sen. Panfilo Lacson continues to stay at fourth place with 7.68 percent. IBON said Lacson’s rating in the recent survey also dropped by 2.73 percent points from his previous rating of 10.41 percent.

The recent IBON survey was conducted nationwide with 1,315 respondents using a stratified population, random sampling method. Tujan said the survey had a 95 percent confidence level with a 3 percent margin of error. IBON asked respondents whom they would vote for if elections were held today, and to choose from among Poe, Roco, Mrs. Arroyo, Lacson, evangelist Eddie Villanueva and businessman Eddie Gil.