Pulse Asia: Chiz, Loren lead senatorial survey

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero topped anew the latest Pulse Asia survey on Filipinos’ senatorial preferences for the upcoming May 2013 elections.

Escudero, in solo first, garnered 74.1 percent of the votes, followed by Sen. Loren Legarda with 69.3 percent.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano was ranked 3rd to 4th places with 60.1 percent while San Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito had a statistical ranking of 3rd to 6th places with 57 percent, according to the poll conducted from Nov. 23 to 29.

Sharing 4th to 7th places are Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce Enrile Jr. (53.2 percent) and former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar (52.2 percent).

Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has an overall voter preference of 50.2 percent which translates to a statistical ranking of  5th to 8th places while Sen. Gringo Honasan (44.9 percent) was ranked 7th to 12th.

Completing the list of probable winners are Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (43.2 percent), Nancy Binay (41.3 percent), Aurora Rep. Edgardo Angara (40.8 percent) and former senator Migz Zubiri, who share 8th to 12th places, 40.5 percent.

With about half a year before the midterm elections, less than four in 10 Filipinos (39 percent) have a complete slate for the May 2013 senatorial race, Pulse Asia said.

The poll was part of Pulse Asia’s regular “Ulat ng Bayan” national survey.

It used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 representative adults 18 years old and above and has sampling error margin of plus or minus three percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Good indication

United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) secretary- general Toby Tiangco yesterday said the latest Pulse Asia survey showed that seven out of the 12 senatorial candidates of the party will win in next year’s polls.

Ejercito, Enrile Jr., Honasan, Binay and Zubiri are running under UNA while Escudero and Legarda are guest candidates of the party.

Other UNA candidates in the top 20 are former senator Richard Gordon in 14th place, Grace Poe -Llamanzares (17th), former senator Ernesto Maceda (19th) and Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco (20th).

JV grateful

Ejercito yesterday said he is grateful for the public’s support to his candidacy.

“I am honored that the public favors me to be one of their top senators in the 2013 elections. Thank you for consistently placing me at number four,” he said, adding that among those who gave him strong backing was the youth sector. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Danny Dangcalan, Non Alquitran, Ric Sapnu