DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte topped a nationwide survey that Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted in the last week of November, emerging as the No. 1 choice of voters not only from all socioeconomic classes but also from all geographic areas.
Nationwide, Duterte was the choice of 38 percent of voters, giving him a double-digit lead over Sen. Grace Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay, who each got 21 percent. Former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas received 15 percent and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago got 4 percent. Only 1 percent of the voters were undecided.
Among the upper and middle classes (ABC), the tough-talking Duterte got a commanding lead of 62 percent. In far second was Binay with 16 percent, followed by erstwhile front-runner Poe with 13 percent.
Roxas, the Aquino administration’s presidential candidate, got just 6 percent and Santiago, 1 percent.
SWS ran the survey on Nov. 26-28, or five to six days after Duterte finally declared his run for the presidency and two days before PDP-Laban proclaimed him its presidential candidate for the May 2016 general elections.
With 1,200 respondents, the survey, commissioned by a Davao-based businessman, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the national level and plus or minus 6 percentage points at the regional level. Each region had 300 respondents.
The respondents were asked in Filipino: “With Rodrigo Duterte on this list as a substitute candidate for President, who would you most likely vote for President if the elections were held today?”
In the nationwide survey conducted by SWS in September, Duterte placed fourth, the choice of only 11 percent of registered voters from a list of 12 names. The poll was topped by Poe, who obtained 26 percent followed by Binay with 24 percent and Roxas, 20 percent.
Astonished
The mayor said he was astonished by the surge in his ratings.
Asked how he intended to sustain his lead until Election Day, he said: “I will hide first because at this time I cannot go around the country because I still lack funds and I do not like asking for campaign funds.”
Duterte said his supporters, who had been with him every time he ran for a local office, might go bankrupt because of the huge campaign expenses involved in the presidential campaign.
“I do not like asking for campaign funds. My Davao supporters might go bankrupt if they will keep on supporting me because millions (of pesos) is needed for the national campaign,” he said.
Vice presidential race
In the race for the second highest elective post in the country, Sen. Francis Escudero, Poe’s running mate, was leading with 30 percent, followed by Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos with 24 percent.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Duterte’s running mate, came in third, getting 21 percent. But in Mindanao, Cayetano was No. 1 with 34 percent, followed by Escudero, 26 percent, and Marcos, 15 percent.
Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, Roxas’ running mate, was fourth in the nationwide survey with 12 percent. She was followed by Sen. Gringo Honasan, Binay’s running mate, with 6 percent. In last place was Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who received just 5 percent.
The camp of Roxas, the Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer, dismissed the results of the privately commissioned SWS survey.
