The Philcoman Research Institute Inc.’s platform-based survey conducted quietly at the start of the presidential campaign showed Vice President Jejomar C. Binay topping the list at 27 percent, way ahead of Senator Grace Poe’s 21 percent and Senator Miriam Santiago’s 18 percent.
Trailing behind them are Mar Roxas with 16 percent and Rodrigo Duterte with 15 percent.
Dr. Ernie Gonzales, a Fellow of the London School of Economics & Political Science and PCMRII director for Research, said their field researchers had asked 1,200 respondents at random whom they would vote for president if elections were held on schedule on four important issues: social, political, economics and national security.
“The PCMRII survey differs from the usual popularity survey conducted by other research organizations. Ours is a nationalist, policy-oriented research study where respondents are asked who of the candidates they think have concrete plans for the country based on the four interrelated important issues,” Gonzales said.
Binay was the choice of 27 percent of 1,200 respondents; Poe, 21; Santiago, 18; Roxas, 16; and Duterte, 15; with 3 percent out of the respondents still undecided. The sampling errors for national percentages is three percent, plus or minus; six for regionals; and the same for Metropolitan Manila.
With such margins of error, Santiago, Roxas and Duterte are practically tied for the third place..
Each percentage point is equivalent to 440,000 votes, assuming 44 million of the 54 millions registered voters cast their ballot on May 9 as ordained by the Constitution.
Of the presidential candidates, Binay is the only one with clearly defined platforms on the issues of political, social, economics and, in particular, national security, where he showed his expertise and policies on anti-terrorism and cybercrime safeguards and eradication which his office put into action in a series of seminars at the start of his term.
On the persistent issues of plunder and corruption, largely sourced from the one-sided Senate, Ombudsman and Commission on Audit investigations, most respondents believed that Binay had merely been prejudged by his political enemies to degrade his popularity among the masses and the middle class.
Poe is highly admired among well-to-do respondents but has no anti-poverty, socio-economic and national security platforms while Santiago is popular among women and voting-aged students, but her health is weighing her down.
Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. bested other vice presidential bets with 31 percent over Chiz Escudero’s 24 percent, Gregorio B. Honasan’s 16 percent, Rep. Leni Robredo’s 13 percent, Senator Allan Cayetano’s 10 percent and Senator Trillanes’s six percent.
The issue against Poe is her being pro-oligarch and her lack of concrete socio-economic and national security platform; Roxas, according to most respondents, is pro-elite and has no concrete platform for the masses; and Duterte, for his being confrontational and tends to put the law into his hands and has not offered a concrete socio-economic plan at all.
In the vice presidential race, Bongbong Marcos is the only one offering concrete solutions on the problems of graft and plunder, the Mindanao problem, the worsening crime situation, foreign affairs and has brought the campaign to a higher state of civility.
Apart from this, he drew more sympathy from majority of the respondents when leftists and some known elitists excessively launched an anti-Marcos campaign.
Sen. Honasan surprisingly increased his standing among the vice presidentiables when members of the reform the armed forces movement (RAM), now an accredited party-list organization, and thousands of Guardians throughout the country, who are known for their nationalistic advocacies for social and economic reform, showed their unequivocal support after the start of the official 45-day campaign period.
Founded in 1954, as Philcoman and later revitalized as PCMRII, is a nation-wide non-governmental federation of professional and technological societies, management development institutions, academe, business enterprises, and professional managers dedicated to the development of management and improvement of management practices in all aspects of Philippine society.
In the senatorial race, incumbent Sen. Vicente Sotto III led the survey with 51 percent followed by Sen. Ralph Recto with 49 percent, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, 48 per cent; Dick Gordon, 47 percent; Ping Lacson, 45 percent; Senate President Frank Drilon, 43; Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, 41; Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona, 39; Sen. Serge Osmena, 37; Sen. Migz Zubiri, 36; former Sen. Francis Pangilinan, 35; former Tesda director general Joel Villanueva, 31; Rep. Neri Colmenares, 26; Risa Hontiveros, 22; and former MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino, 21.
The PCMRII will release its next survey result in the media and on its website by mid April and the last one will be announced on May 2, including its findings on the series of presidential debates.