Former President Rodrigo Duterte is the top-of-mind candidate of the senator for the midterm elections in 2025, a non-commissioned survey conducted by PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. showed.
The survey, conducted from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4, 2023, showed Duterte with a voting predisposition of 48 percent and a trust rating of 59 percent.
With a margin of error of +/- 3 percent, Duterte was statistically tied in terms of voting predisposition with ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo (44 percent) and former vice-presidential candidate and cardiologist Dr. Willie Ong (43 percent).
Tulfo logged a 44 percent trust rating while Ong had 50 percent. PUBLiCUS said both recorded a drop in support in Mindanao.
Duterte initially filed a certificate of candidacy for a Senate seat in the 2022 polls but eventually withdrew from the race.
The former President earlier warned he would be compelled to come out of retirement and run for senator if his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, is impeached.
The younger Duterte was criticized for her past use of confidential funds and her request for P650 million under the 2024 national budget, which she later withdrew.
“If you do that, I’ll return to politics. I will be forced to,” the 78-year-old Duterte patriarch said. “It’s either I will run for senator or I will run for vice president even if I’m old.”
Rounding up the top 12 are reelectionist senators Christopher Go (40 percent), Imee Marcos (38 percent), and Ronald Dela Rosa (36 percent); former Senate President Vicente Sotto (33 percent); former Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso and former senator Panfilo Lacson at 31 percent each; former Vice President Leni Robredo (27 percent); Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (26 percent), and re-electionist senator Pia Cayetano (25 percent).
The survey used purposive sampling composed of 1,500 respondents randomly drawn from the market research panel of over 200,000 Filipinos maintained by the Singapore office of PureSpectrum, a US-based panel marketplace with multinational presence.
The sample was restricted to registered Filipino voters.