Binay lead drops slightly; Duterte, Poe are biggest gainers
By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte has shot up the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey and now ranks third in the list of possible presidential candidates.
In the March 2015 SWS survey on the three best leaders to succeed PNoy in 2016, Duterte got 15 percent of the total 1,200 respondents nationwide. This was a 10 percent increase from the December 2014 survey in which he only got five percent.
Duterte is now tied with Department of Interior Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas, who could be the standard bearer of Liberal Party in the 2016 presidential election.
Interestingly, Duterte had assured Roxas in a telephone conversation last Tuesday night in Camp Quintin Merecido that he (Duterte) will not run for president next year.
“Huwag kang magalala kasi sinabi ko sayo hindi naman ako mag presidente kaya lang ayusin natin tong bayan (Don’t worry because I assure you I am not interested in becoming President. But let us fix this nation),” Duterte told Roxas in the middle of his speech during the turnover of computer equipment to the Community Security Group-Firearms and Explosive Office at Police Regional Office (PRO( 11.
Vice President Jejomar Binay is still on the top of the survey with 36 percent, followed by Senator Grace Poe with 31 percent.
The SWS survey showed that Binay’s rating had decreased one percent from the December 2014 survey in which he garnered 37 percent. Poe, on the other hand, increased her rating by 10 percent from 21 percent in the December 2104 survey.
Former President Joseph Estrada and Senator Miriam Santiago tied in the fourth spot with 11 percent. Senator Francis Chiz Escudero ranked fifth with eight percent, while Senator Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos ranked sixth with seven percent.
Senator Allan Peter Cayetano ranked seventh with four percent, whiel former Senator Manny Villar and Senator Antonio Trillanes tied in eighth spot with three percent.
Former Senator Panfilo Lacson, boxing champion Manny Pacquaio, and Senators Bong Revilla, Loren Legarda, and Franklin Drillon tied in the ninth place garnering one percent each.
The survey was conducted from March 20-23, 2015 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.
In its website, the SWS said the survey was “not commissioned.”
“This is done on SWS’s own initiative and released as a public service,” the group said.
