9 Team PNoy, 3 UNA bets likely to win Senate race – SWS

MANILA, Philippines - Nine candidates from the administration-led coalition and three from the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) are likely to win next week’s senatorial elections based on the latest pre-election survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and BusinessWorld.

The survey was conducted from May 2 to 3.

The poll showed re-electionist Sen. Loren Legarda still leading the race with 57 percent, although lower by two points compared to last month.

Coming in second is re-electionist Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano of Team PNoy with 50 percent, also down by two points from last month.

Re-electionist Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Nancy Binay of UNA shared the third and fourth slots. They both garnered 48 percent.

The ranking of Escudero, who has been hounded by controversies involving his love life, improved from fifth place last month.

Former Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chair Grace Poe was in fifth place with 45 percent, an improvement from April’s 39 percent.

UNA candidate San Juan Rep. JV Ejercito and former Las Piñas City congresswoman Cynthia Villar of Team PNoy were tied at sixth and seventh slots with 44 percent each.

Ejercito gained one point from April’s 43 percent while Villar lost five points in May.

Re-electionist Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III of Team PNoy bagged the eighth spot with 43 percent.

Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino, cousin of President Aquino, got 41 percent, three points less than last month.

Team PNoy bets Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara and re-electionist Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV shared the 10th and 11th spots with 38 percent each.

Angara’s rating slipped from 42 percent to 38 percent. Trillanes’ 39 percent rating also dropped by one point.

The 12th and last slot went to re-electionist Sen. Gregorio Honasan, who maintained his 37 percent rating.

Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile (UNA) was in 13th place with 35 percent followed by former senators Ramon Magsaysay Jr. of Team PNoy (33 percent, 14th  to 15th) and UNA’s Juan Miguel Zubiri (33 percent, 14th  to 15th). The three senatorial candidates suffered a two-point drop from their April ratings.

“Given the statistical ties, the most probable final Team PNoy-UNA score is 9-3, with 12th place going either to Honasan or Enrile who are both from UNA,” the SWS was quoted by BusinessWorld as saying.

“The next probable scores could either be 10-2 (if Magsaysay wins at the expense of Enrile) or else 8-4 (if Zubiri wins at the expense of either Angara or Trillanes),” SWS said.

“The least likely score is 7-5, if both Enrile and Zubiri win at the expense of both Angara and Trillanes,” it added.

Meanwhile, the same survey showed that four in 10 registered voters or 44 percent will vote for 12 candidates, naming an average of 8.7 percent bets.

The survey, which SWS said was not commissioned, used face-to-face interviews of 2,400 registered voters nationwide.

‘Empty victory’

UNA said the SWS survey only shows an “empty victory” for the Liberal Party, since candidates belonging to the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) and Nacionalista Party (NP) are setting the pace.

“If we will use the latest survey as basis, the candidates of the NPC are continuously leading. But Team PNoy is almost melted. We can safely predict that UNA, NPC and NP are the dominant contenders on May 13. No LP,” UNA secretary-general Toby Tiangco said.Tiangco said LP is just riding on the strength and popularity of the NPC and NP candidates, and “does not have the fore and spine to stand as a single party.”

“How can they claim to be the leading yellow coalition when they only have one candidate?” he asked, referring to the President’s cousin. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Christina Mendez, Marvin Sy