MANILA - Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte wrestled the top spot of presidential race away from Senator Grace Poe, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The poll, conducted on March 30 - April 2 and commissioned by BusinessWorld, saw 27% of the respondents picking the tough-talking mayor.

In the survey conducted after the second presidential debate in Cebu, Duterte surged four points from his 23% in the March 8 - 11 SWS survey.

Poe, meanwhile, ranked second with 23%, six percentage points down from her 29% in the previous poll.

Given the survey's margin of error of +/-3, the senator was statistically tied with Vice President Jejomar Binay who got 20%.

Binay jumped two points from the previous poll's 18%.

At third place was Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Mar Roxas with 18%.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago steadied at 3%.

The BusinessWorld-commissioned survey was done using face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults nationwide.

Speaking to dzMM, political analyst Prof. Edmund Tayao attributed the rise in Duterte's popularity to the 71-year-old mayor's performance in the March 20 #PiliPinas Debates compared to that of Poe, the ertswhile frontrunner.

"Hindi lang naman iyung mensahe ang napapansin ng mga nanonood kundi pati na rin iyung composure at personalidad ng kandidato... Si Senator Grace, halimbawa, kahit malaman ang sinasabi at alam nating preparado, e parang napikon at kumbaga, hindi na nga siya sumusunod sa rules," Tayao said.

"Siguro isa ito doon sa pinagkumparahan ng mga nanonood at nakita si Mayor Duterte na cool na cool. Mas alam niya ang ginagawa at sinasabi niya."

The University of Santo Tomas (UST) professor added that Duterte's memorable one liners during the face-off may have also appealed to voters.

READ: Fireworks in 2nd presidential debate

MOBILE SURVEY

The popularity figures of the candidates in the face-to-face polls differed slightly from the Bilang Pilipino-SWS Mobile Survey conducted last March 30.

Duterte's rating was down four points if compared to the 31% he got in the last mobile survey.

Poe, meanwhile, was the frontrunner with a preference rating of 34 %.

in the mobile poll, Binay placed third with 20% while Roxas followed him with 17 %.

Roxas saw his number decrease by 1 percent from 19 percent in early March.

On the other hand, Santiago was flat at 3 percent.

Aside from the second presidential debate, the poll was conducted also after the Supreme Court's ruled in favor Poe's presidential bid.