Grace Poe enters Senate 'Magic 12': survey

MANILA, Philippines – Grace Poe-Llamanzares, daughter of the late Action King Fernando Poe Jnr, has barged into contention in the May 2013 senatorial race and is now statistically tied with re-electionist Sen. Antonio Trillanes in the 10th-11th slots, according to the latest Social Weather Stations survey.

The survey, conducted last January 17-19, 2013 and first published in BusinessWorld, also showed at least one senatorial bet, re-electionist Sen. Richard Gordon, possibly dropping out of the Senate “Magic 12.” Only 12 slots are up for grabs in the May 13 elections.

The latest survey, which comes 4 months before Election Day, saw several changes in the possible list of winners.

Three re-electionists – Loren Legarda (65%), Francis Escudero (62%) and Alan Peter Cayetano (60%) – continue to lead the pack of senatorial bets. They placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the SWS pre-election survey.

San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, son of former president Joseph Estrada and half-brother of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, is now ranked 4th after placing 5th in the November 29-December 3 survey.

Re-electionist Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan improved his chances at winning another senatorial term. He is now tied at ranks 5-6 with Sen. Koko Pimentel in the latest survey.

Juan Miguel Zubiri (47%) now ranks 7th in the race.

Cynthia Villar and Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile dropped slightly in the SWS rankings but remained in the “Magic 12.” Both are tied at 8-9.

Trillanes improved his ranking and is now tied at ranks 10-11 with Poe. Trillanes is currently involved in a word war with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, father of the senatorial candidate.

In 12th place is Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay, daughter of Vice-President Jejomar Binay. She ranked 10-11 in the last SWS survey.

SWS said Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara, who ranked 13th in the survey, could still catch up to Binay. At least 39% of Filipinos said they would vote for Angara, compared to 43% for the Vice-President’s daughter.

Richard Gordon, who was ranked 12th in the last survey, has fallen behind in the latest SWS survey. He fell to 14th place with 36%.

Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, cousin of President Benigno Aquino, fared slightly better in the latest survey but was still out of the winners’ circle. He ranked 15th with 34%, followed by Ramon “Jun” Magsaysay Jr. (33% -16th place) and Jamby Madrigal (28% - 17th place).

LP bet Risa Hontiveros was tied with UNA bet Ernie Maceda at ranks 18-19, followed by Tingting Cojuangco (20), Mitos Magsaysay (21-22) and Edward Hagedorn (21-22).

Bro. Eddie Villanueva, a newcomer in the Senate race, ranked 23rd in the latest survey. Villanueva substituted for Bangon Pilipinas senatorial candidate Israel Virgines, who withdrew his candidacy last December 20.

He was not included in the 2 previous SWS surveys.

The January 2013 SWS-BW pre-election survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 registered voters who were asked to pick up to 12 names from a list of 33 official senatorial candidates. The error margins are ±3% for national and ±6 for area percentages. With BusinessWorld