Congressman Amado S. Bagatsing of the Kabaka Party emerged as the overwhelming choice of the people of Manila to serve as their next mayor, getting more votes than his two main rivals combined.
In a mock poll conducted by the Independent Research Services Group of the Seed Institute, Bagatsing garnered 47.8 percent of the votes cast by 3,040 respondents.
The incumbent mayor Joseph Estrada (Partido ng Masang Pilipino) got 23.4 percent while former mayor Alfredo Lim (Liberal Party) had 22.3 percent.
Bagatsing’s 47.8 percent was bigger than the combined total votes of Estrada and Lim. The congressman’s winning spread of 24.4 percent was also even bigger than the total votes received by either Estrada or Lim.
Representing the fifth congressional district of Manila, Bagatsing jumped by a big 16.3 percent in the March survey compared to the February survey conducted by the Seed Institute.
Lim plunged by 10.8 percent in March while Estrada saw a slight 1.1 percent increase in his voters’ share.
The survey designed by HB&A International has a margin of error of plus-minus 1.78 at 95 percent confidence level, with each of Manila’s six districts getting a minimum of at least 500 respondents.
The son of the longest serving mayor of Manila, the late Ramon Bagatsing, Amado Bagatsing has served as congressman of Manila for six terms or about 20 years now.
Bagatsing is the founder of the highly successful Kabaka (Kabalikat ng Bayan sa Kaunlaran) program which has been providing the people of Manila with free health care and free livelihood and skills training, among other services, for 30 years now.
As mayor, Bagatsing vowed to shut down the drug laboratories proliferating in Manila and ensure peace and order by chasing criminals.
He said he would actively partner with the private sector to spur the economic and cultural transformation of the city, while fighting poverty, joblessness and homelessness among Manileños.