SWS poll taken mid-Feb shows top party list choices
Six party list groups have emerged among the top choices of voters in the upcoming May 2025 elections, based on a recent survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) and commissioned by the think tank Stratbase.
Conducted from Feb. 15 to Feb. 19, several days after the start of the official campaign period, the survey asked registered voters which party list group they would most likely pick if the elections were held during the survey period.
Among 156 groups, preference for Pagtibayin at Palaguin ang Pangkabuhayang Pilipino (4Ps) remained the highest at 9.61 percent despite a decrease in support compared to the survey held in January when it got 11.8 percent.
Following 4Ps and also retaining its ranking is Duterte Youth, with support for the group increasing to 8.28 percent in February from 6.05 percent in January.
According to the survey results, the two top party list candidates are the only groups projected to win three guaranteed seats in the House of Representatives.
Placing third is party list group FPJ Panday Bayanihan, which gained significant support since placing seventh in January. Preference for the group grew to 4.76 percent in February from 2.45 percent.
‘Issue association’
Meanwhile, Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) went down a spot after its support dwindled to 4.46 percent from 5.41 percent in the same period.
Both FPJ Panday Bayanihan and ACT-CIS are on track to secure two seats in the House after reaching the 4-percent threshold for additional representation.
Two other parties may get a guaranteed seat each, having surpassed the 2-percent minimum vote share: Senior Citizens, whose ranking also went down to fifth place after its support declined to 2.99 percent from 3.43 percent, and Asenso Pinoy, the biggest gainer in the survey, climbing to the sixth spot from ranking 77th-82nd in January, with preference spiking to 2.65 percent from 0.33 percent within a month.
Falling short of the 2-percent threshold are party list groups Agimat (1.95 percent), Kusug Tausug (1.94) and Tingong (1.93 percent).
According to Stratbase Group president Dindo Manhit, the survey results highlighted “the significant influence of name recall and issue association in voter preferences.”
Sounds like gov’t program
“4Ps party-list continues to lead primarily due to its strong affiliation with the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a government initiative that 90 percent of Filipinos consider beneficial to the poor, based on a previous SWS survey. This underscores how voters gravitate toward party-list names that resonate with familiar social programs,” Manhit noted.
“Similarly, other groups like Duterte Youth, FPJ Panday Bayanihan, and ACT-CIS are benefiting from their strong connections to prominent personalities and advocacy-driven names,” he added.
The survey asked 1,800 registered voters nationwide and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.31 percent.
