Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio again led the list of presidential candidates for the 2022 national elections preferred by Filipinos, a Pulse Asia survey released Thursday showed.
Duterte-Carpio, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, led the 13 “probable presidential candidates” with 27 percent, followed by the namesake son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, former senator Bongbong Marcos, with 13 percent, and Sen. Grace Poe and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno who were tied at the 3rd spot with 12 percent each, according to the pollster.
Sen. Manny Pacquiao earned the 4th spot with 11 percent, followed by Vice President Leni Robredo (7), Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go (5), former Vice President Jejomar Binay (3), Sen. Panfilo Lacson (2) and Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano (2).
Among those least preferred by survey respondents for president were Sen. Richard Gordon (1), former defense chief Gilbert Teodoro (0.5), and retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio (0.5). Both Gordon and Teodoro ran for the presidency in 2010 but lost to Benigno Aquino III.
Duterte was the most preferred presidential candidate in her home region Mindanao with a whopping 60 percent, followed by those in the Visayas with 21 percent, and Balance Luzon with 17 percent.
The Davao City mayor was least preferred among respondents in Metro Manila with 12 percent in the survey conducted between Feb. 22 and March 3.
She also topped the preferred presidential candidates among Class E respondents with 29 percent, followed by Class ABC (28) and Class D (26).
For the survey, Pulse Asia asked the question: “Of the people on this list, whom would you vote for as president of the Philippines if the May 2022 elections were held today and they were candidates? You may mention others not included in this list.”
Late last year, the President’s daughter also led possible presidential candidates for the upcoming national elections also conducted by Pulse Asia.
She has repeatedly denied being interested to run for the country’s top post, but this did not deter her loyal supporters to set up banners across the nation asking her to run.
Pulse Asia president Prof. Ronald Holmes had earlier explained that the Davao mayor’s surname may have something to do with her popularity rating.
Her father, the President, has said he has told his daughter not to run for the presidency.
The survey involved 2,400 adult respondents who were interviewed face-to-face.
VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Moreno, meanwhile, topped the list of preferred vice presidential candidates nationwide with 16 percent.
Tied in the second spot were Pacquiao and Duterte with 15 percent each.
Ranking third were Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Marcos, who each got 11 percent. Marcos lost the vice presidency to Robredo in 2016, with the results upheld by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal that junked his election protest.
Also on the list were Go (9), Cayetano (7) and Sorsogon Gov. Francis Escudero (7), a former senator, Public Works Secretary Mark Villar (3), and Sen. Sonny Angara (3).
The least favored vice presidential candidates according to the poll were human rights lawyer Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno with 1 percent, and Teodoro with 0.5 percent.
The poll had a ± 2 percent margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level, the pollster said.
