Mar doing well in surveys – Noy

Amid public perception that his anointed one is politically weak, President Aquino remains unfazed and insisted that the campaign of administration presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II needs no finetuning, precisely because he has been doing well in surveys.

From where he stands, Aquino believes that there is no cause for concern, as Roxas ranks second or “statistically tied“with opposition presidential bet Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“It depends on your outlook. Isn’t it before it was four percent? The four became 20 plus, that’s times five. There’s a margin of error in the survey,” Aquino pointed out.

He issued the pronouncements in the wake of observations that the administration candidate seemed to be lagging behind his opponents, considering that Roxas is way behind presidential frontrunner Sen. Grace Poe.

The latest Pulse Asia survey conducted last Oct. 18-29 showed Poe with 39 percent, up by 13 points from 26 percent in September.

Binay ranked second with 24 percent (up from 19 percent) while Roxas ranked third with 21 percent, up by a point from 20 percent in the previous survey.

The poll was conducted after the filing of certificates of candidacy last Oct. 12 to 16.

In the same Pulse Asia survey, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago placed fourth with 11 percent, an eight-point improvement from three percent previously.

Meanwhile, Poe’s running mate, Sen. Francis Escudero, also topped Pulse Asia’s vice presidential survey with 43 percent, up by 20 points from 23 percent in September.

Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. came in second with 21 percent ( from 13 percent), followed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano with 11 percent (from nine percent); Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robrero with seven percent (from three percent); and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with six percent (from four percent).

The survey had 3,400 respondents and has a margin of error of 1.7 percentage points.