MANILA, Philippines – Liberal Party (LP) senatorial candidates Sen. Franklin Drilon and former food security czar Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan led the mobile survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) last March 22.
The SWS mobile survey was commissioned by Bilang Pilipino and conducted two days after the second presidential debate in Cebu.
Senate President Drilon was tied with Pangilinan at the top and second spots with 61 percent while their top contender incumbent Sen. Vicente Sotto III took the third place with 58 percent.
Three other LP bets followed at the fourth and fifth spots as Sen. Ralph Recto ranked fourth with 56 percent, while Rissa Hontiveros and former Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson were in contention at the fifth to sixth spots with 55 percent.
Former Sen. Richard “Dick” Gordon came in on the seventh place with 50 percent followed by another LP bet, former Justice Secretary Leila De Lima on the eighth spot with 49 percent.
Other senators who made it to the magic 12 were former Sen. Miguel Zubiri with 48 percent (ninth), Rep. Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian with 46 percent (tenth), Sen. Segio Osmeña with 43 percent (eleventh) and tied at the twelfth to thirteenth places were Rep. Emmanuel Manny Pacquiao and LP’s former TESDA Chief Joel Villanueva with 39 percent.
See how other senatorial candidates fared in the Bilang Pilipino-SWS survey:
The survey revealed that seven of the senatorial candidates who made it to the top 12 of the survey were from LP while others are independent candidates or from other political parties such as Akbayan, Nationalist People's Coalition, Partido ng Masang Pilipino and United Nationalist Alliance.
About 67 percent of the 806 respondents chose a full slate of 12 names, with average number of names chosen at 10.2.
The Bilang Pilipino-SWS said 212 respondents are from Metro Manila, 190 from Luzon, 221 from Visayas and 183 from Mindanao with sampling error margings of +/- 3 percent for national percentages and +/- 7 percent in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Drilon also topped the latest Pulse Asia conducted from March 8 to 13, 2016 sharing the top spot with Sotto.