MANILA - Senators Francis Escudero and Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. are now tied in the vice-presidential race while Vice-President Jejomar Binay's lead in the presidential race dipped slightly in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) pre-election survey.

The latest BusinessWorld-Social Weather Stations (BW-SWS) pre-election survey conducted last February 5 to 7 showed Binay's lead in the presidential race slipping from 31 percent in January to 29 percent in February.

On the other hand, Davao City Mayor and presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte's numbers went up from 20 percent in January to 24 percent in February. He is now tied with Sen. Grace Poe who retained her 24 percent voter support.

Former DILG chief Mar Roxas' numbers also slipped in the latest survey, from 21 percent voter support in January to 18 percent in February. Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago's numbers went up from 3 percent to 4 percent during the survey period.

Voter support for former ambassador Roy Seneres went down from 0.1 percent in January to zero percent in February. Seneres passed away on February 8, right after the survey period.

The survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 validated voters, 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The survey has sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The survey asked respondents to choose which candidate they would vote for if the May elections were held today.

The latest survey also showed vice-presidential candidate Marcos tied with Escudero at the top of the vice-presidential race. Both candidates now have 26% voter support in the latest SWS survey.

This is the first time that Escudero has lost the lead in the vice-presidential race since the surveys were conducted.

The tie came after Marcos' numbers improved by one percentage point, from 25 percent in January to 26 percent in February. On the other hand, Escudero's numbers dipped slightly from 28 percent in January to 26 percent this month.

Three other vice-presidential candidates - Leni Robredo, Alan Peter Cayetano and Sonny Trillanes - also showed improved numbers in the latest SWS survey.

Support for Robredo improved from 17 percent in January to 19 percent in February, while Cayetano's numbers improved from 14 percent in January to 16 percent in February. Trillanes' numbers improved from 3 percent to 5 percent voter support during the same period.

Support for Sen. Gregorio Honasan, the vice-presidential candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance, declined from 8 percent to six percent during the survey period. With a report by BusinessWorld