Tulfos, Go, Sotto top Pulse Asia Senate picks
If the midterm elections were to be held today, incumbent ACT-CIS party list Rep. Erwin Tulfo would top the senatorial race while ACT-CIS would rank first among all party list groups, based on Pulse Asia’s latest “Pulso ng Bayan” Pre-Electoral national survey.
The results of the survey conducted from Jan. 18 to Jan. 25 showed that Tulfo was the favorite among 62.8 percent of respondents who said they would vote for him in the May 12 national and local elections. He was followed by Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, who was in second to third place with 50.4 percent potential votes, and former Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto, in second to fourth place with 50.2 percent potential votes.
In third to eighth place was Tulfo’s older brother, Ben, with 46.2 percent potential voters.
Sharing fourth to eighth place were incumbent Senators Pia Cayetano with 46.1 percent and Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. with 46.0 percent. Next were Sen. Imee Marcos with 43.3 percent and former Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson with 42.4 percent, who were ranked fourth to 12th place.
Television personality Willie Revillame was in the seventh to 13th spot at 41.9 percent, followed by Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Makati Mayor Abby Binay and former Sen. Manny Pacquiao, all sharing the seventh to 14th spot with 41.2 percent, 41.1 percent, and 40.6 percent, respectively.
Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar was in the ninth to 14th spot with 38.4 percent, while Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid took the 10th to 14th spot with 37.7 percent.
Also notable were former Senators Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, who took the 15th to 16th spot with 29.1 percent, and Bam Aquino taking the 15th to 18th spot with 27.4 percent. Former Sen. Gringo Honasan and former Interior Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos shared the 16th to 18th spot with 25.2 percent and 24.8 percent, respectively.
Mind made up
The survey also showed that with over three months to go before the May national elections, half of the registered voters had already picked the senatorial candidates they would vote for, with 72 percent of respondents in Mindanao and 64 percent in the Visayas having a complete slate of 12 candidates.
On the other hand, awareness of the party list system at the national level was recorded at 79 percent.
Based on the survey results, among the 155 party list groups, about five have a chance of securing the maximum number of seats. These were ACT-CIS (with a preference of 7.96 percent), 4Ps (7.42 percent), Tingog (6.29 percent), Uswag Ilonggo (4.83 percent), and Senior Citizens (4.44 percent). Each group was assured of one seat, with varying percentages for the number of additional seats.
Other party list groups with a chance of getting one seat were Ako Bicol (3.32 percent), PPP (2.52 percent), Malasakit@Bayanihan (2.46 percent), Asenso Pinoy (2.44 percent), Duterte Youth (2.38 percent), Agimat (2.06 percent), and Gabriela (2.06 percent).
The survey used in-person interviews among 2,400 adult Filipinos nationwide. It had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2 percent for national percentages, plus-or-minus 6 percent for Metro Manila, plus-or-minus 3 percent for Luzon outside Metro Manila, and plus-or-minus 4 percent for both Visayas and Mindanao.
Of the top 14 senatoriables, 10 are from the administration coalition Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas. Go and Dela Rosa are running under former President Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino while Revillame and Ben Tulfo are running as independents.
