DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was the biggest gainer among the candidates seeking the presidency in next month’s elections while Vice President Jejomar Binay suffered his steepest rating drop since the start of the campaign period, the March 26 to April 1 The Standard Poll showed.
Duterte, who got 30 percent, was statistically tied with Senator Grace Poe with 27 percent given the survey’s national error margin of +/- 1.8 percent.
Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II came in third at 21 percent, overtaking Binay who dropped five percentage points to 18 percent. Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was at the fifth place with 2 percent.
Duterte has surged in the latest The Standard Poll, with at least 30 percent of the respondents saying they will vote for him if the elections were held today.
The survey, which covered 79 provinces and 40 highly urbanized cities— including 17 cities in the National Capital Region, had 3,000 respondents, all of whom are registered voters who said they are sure to vote in the May 9 polls.
“Duterte has the momentum at this time compared to other presidential candidates. There is consolidation of support for Duterte in Mindanao. In bailiwicks of other candidates like in Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas and NCR, he also posted significant increases,” said Junie Laylo, resident pollster of The Standard.
Duterte’s rating went up across all major geographic groupings—up 7 percentage points in the National Capital Region (30 percent), 7 pecentage points in North and Central Luzon (18 percent), 5 percentage points in South Luzon and Bicol (19 percent), 8 percentage points in the Visayas (31 percent), and 4 percentage points in Mindanao (53 percent).
In contrast, except in Mindanao where his rating remained flat at 11 percent, Binay’s numbers went down 5 percentage points in NCR (23 percent), 5 percentage points in North and Central Luzon (28 percent), 9 percentage points in South Luzon and Bicol (18 percent), and 4 percentage points in the Visayas (13 percent).
Duterte was the top choice of respondents from both urban (33 percent) and rural (28 percent) areas. Across economic classes, a plurality of respondents from Classes ABC and D said they will vote for the Davao City mayor at 37 percent and 30 percent, respectively. Duterte and Poe were tied at the top spot with 29 percent each for respondents belonging to Class E.
Laylo also attributed Duterte’s steady increase to the respondents’s choice on who can solve the country’s most important problems among the five presidential candidates.
Respondents identified the country’s top problems as follows: poverty (26 percent), illegal drugs (21 percent), corruption (20 percent), unemployment (11 percent) and criminality (8 percent).
A plurality of respondents said Duterte can solve the problem of illegal drugs (37 percent), corruption (35 percent) and criminality (36 percent) while Poe can solve poverty (34 percent) and unemployment (30 percent).
At least 36 percent of the respondents also said that Duterte performed best during the second presidential debate in Cebu, followed by Poe (32 percent), Roxas (17 percent) and Binay (10 percent).
However, 38 percent of the voters said it was Poe who showed the best character as a would-be-president among the candidates who participated in the debate.
The camp of Duterte welcomed the survey result, saying it was reflective of the groundswell of support for the mayor.
“We have seen our numbers getting even bigger, validating what we are seeing on the ground. That Rody is on top means the people are on top. However, that Rody is on top exposes him to attacks. We believe that his popularity now is the reason why the Aquino administration has unleashed a string of attacks against Duterte, hoping that they can prevent his surge,” said Bohol Mayor Leoncio Evasco, Duterte’s national campaign manager.
“That he is the presidential candidate to beat is becoming clearer and clearer for his rivals now, a truth courtesy of the Filipino people whose overwhelming show of love for Rody is enough to drown even the most finely orchestrated of attacks. Slowly, we are are getting closer to our goal of ensuring victory not only for Rodrigo Duterte but for the Filipino people who are desperate for change, desperate to end criminality, poverty and corruption that hounded the nation so long now,” he added.
Binay’s camp downplayed the decline in the vice president’s ratings, saying the real survey would be on May 9.
“We thank the people for their continued trust and confidence in the vice president despite the irresponsible and malicious misinformation campaign being perpetrated by his political opponents and some media outfits,” UNA spokesperson Mon Ilagan said.
Roxas echoed the position of Binay: “It is the elections in May that is the most important survey. From what we can see, the race remains tight. And I am confident that I will win come election day.”
Poe’s camp said the senator will continue to harness the data drawn from The Standard Poll to calibrate their next move.
“The information from this poll, we will use to fine tune our next steps,” said Poe’s spokesman, Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian.
Meanwhile, Senator Francis Escudero and Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. were statistically tied with 25 percent and 28 percent, respectively in the vice presidential race.
Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo remained on the third spot with 21 percent, followed by senators Alan Cayetano (15 percent), Antonio Trillanes IV (5 percent) and Gregorio Honasan (3 percent).
Reelectionist Senator Vicente Sotto III was the top choice for senator with 51 percent of respondents saying they will vote for him if the polls were held today.
Rounding up the top 15 senatorial candidates are Francis Pangilinan (45 percent); senators Ralph Recto and Franklin Drilon with 43 percent each; Panfilo Lacson with 39 percent; Juan Miguel Zubiri and Joel Villanueva with 37 percent each; Risa Hontiveros (36 percent); Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian (35 percent); Senator Teofisto Guingona III, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and Richard Gordon with 31 percent each; Leila de Lima (30 percent); Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao (29 percent); and Senator Sergio Osmeña III (28 percent). With Rio N. Araja, Macon Ramos-Araneta, Vito Barcelo
Click here for the complete result: The Standard Poll