Pulse Asia: Go, Tulfo top picks for senator
Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go remained the top pick of Filipinos among senatorial bets for the midterm elections even though the majority of candidates within the so-called “winning circle” were backed by the Marcos administration, based on Pulse Asia’s latest “Ulat ng Bayan” national pre-election survey conducted from April 20 to April 24.
Go, who also ranked first in the previous survey conducted in March, enjoyed a 62.2 percent voter preference score for April, a slight increase from his previous score of 61.9 percent.
He was followed by ACT-CIS Rep. Erwin Tulfo, former Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, and Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who were all tied for second to fourth place.
Tulfo, who previously held the top spot in the January survey, had a voter preference score of 42.4 percent, a decrease of 9 percent from his March standing.
Sotto, who was ranked fourth in March, had 41.1 percent potential votes–down 3 percent from his previous standing. He had a slim edge over Dela Rosa, who had 41 percent potential votes in April, a decrease of around 7 percent from March.
Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. was in fifth to eighth place with 35.6 percent, a slight dip from his March score of 36.9 percent. Next was former Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, who took fifth to ninth place with 33.8 percent, a decrease of around 3 percentage points from his March score.
Broadcaster Ben Tulfo took fifth to 10th place with 33.5 percent, down 2 percent from his previous score. In fifth to 11th place was Sen. Lito Lapid with 32.2 percent, down one percent from March.
Sixth to 13th place
Makati Mayor Abby Binay was ranked sixth to 13th place with 30.2 percent, a decrease of around 5 percent from March while Sen. Pia Cayetano was in seventh to 13th place with 29.9 percent, down from around 8 percent from March.
Television personality Willie Revillame held eighth to 14th place with 28.6 percent, a drop from his March score of 35.7 percent. Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar, on the other hand, took the ninth to 14th place with 28.3 percent, a decline from her March score of 29 percent.
Rounding out the slate were former Senators Manny Pacquiao at ninth to 14th place (28.3 percent) and Bam Aquino at 11th to 18th place (25.4 percent). Both of their scores went down by around 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
Just outside the top 12 were Sen. Imee Marcos with 24.7 percent (from her previous 27.6 percent) and actor Philip Salvador with 23.7 percent (from his previous 30.9 percent). The two are tied for 14th to 18th place.
According to results of the survey, with the May 12 election fast approaching, a little over a quarter of registered voters—or 27 percent—have a complete senatorial slate.
Of the projected “Magic 12,” nine candidates–Erwin Tulfo, Lapid, Cayetano, Revilla, Lacson, Sotto, Pacquiao, Binay and Villar—are running under the administration-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas coalition.
Party list preferences
The survey results also showed that 83 percent of registered voters had already picked their party list group, with 34 groups out of 155 having a statistical chance of winning at least one seat in the House of Representatives if the elections were held during the survey period.
Five party list groups were in a position to win three seats—the maximum number of House seats that could be garnered. These were Duterte Youth (5.57 percent), Agimat (5.52 percent), ACT-CIS (5.17 percent), 4Ps (4.85 percent) and Senior Citizens (4.55 percent). Duterte Youth, ACT-CIS and 4Ps were also among the top five picks of respondents in the March survey.
Seven groups, on the other hand, have a chance of winning two seats each. These were Tingog (3.63 percent), Uswag Ilonggo (2.48 percent), PPP (2.38 percent), Nanay (2.28 percent), Ako Bicol (2.20 percent), Asenso Pinoy (2.19 percent) and AKO Bisaya (2.08 percent).
