BBM-Sara tandem maintains lead in Pulse Asia

Former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, again led Pulse Asia’s latest Pulso ng Bayan pre-electoral national survey conducted from Jan. 19 to 24, 2022.

The tandem also posted a commanding lead against their fellow presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the May 2022 national elections in the latest nationwide survey conducted by the RP-Mission and Development Foundation Inc. (RPMDFI) from Jan. 22 to 30, 2022.

Results of the Pulse Asia poll released yesterday showed Marcos getting a 60 percent voter preference rating while enjoying a lead in all geographic areas and socio-economic groupings across the country. Likewise, the RPMDFI’s non-commissioned poll with 10,000 registered voters as respondents showed Marcos with a 45.02 percent voter preference rating as against Vice President Leni Robredo’s 20.6 percent.

In the Pulse Asia survey, Robredo came in second with 16 percent of respondents saying they would vote for her. The survey results showed that the Vice President had low, but double-digit voter preferences across all geographic areas and socioeconomic classes except in Mindanao, where she received a score of only eight percent.

Both Sen. Manny Pacquiao and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno got voter preference ratings of eight percent while Sen. Panfilo Lacson received four percent.

In the RPMDFI survey, Moreno ranked third with a 16.25 percent preference rating while Pacquiao took fourth with a 9.79 percent score. Lacson is in fifth place with eight percent.

In terms of geographic areas, RPMDFI showed Marcos leading in Metro Manila with 47.94 percent, the rest of Luzon with 46.61 percent, Visayas with 38.87 percent, and Mindanao with 46.04 percent.

In the vice president race, Pulse Asia’s survey results show that 50 percent or half of the country’s likely voters are inclined to elect Duterte, with Senate President Tito Sotto trailing her with the support of 29 percent, or almost a third of those likely to vote in May 2022.

Some 11 percent of the respondents said they would vote for Sen. Francis Pangilinan if the May 2022 elections coincided with the conduct of the survey interviews, while Dr. Willie Ong got a score of five percent followed by Buhay party-list Rep. Jose Atienza Jr. with one percent.

In RPMDFI’s vice president poll, 52.05 percent of respondents voted for Duterte who dominated her bailiwick with a 65.70 percent score in Mindanao.

The survey showed that she was the most preferred candidate in other geographic areas including Metro Manila with 44.62 percent, rest of Luzon with 48.65 percent, and the Visayas with 48.04 percent.

RPMDFI said Sotto trails Durterte with 35.95 percent, followed by Pangilinan with 6.22 percent, while the rest of the vice-presidential aspirants had single-digit voter preference scores.

“Across geographic areas and socio-economic classes, near to huge majority voter preferences are obtained by Davao City Mayor Duterte in the Visayas (47 percent), Mindanao (84 percent), and every socioeconomic grouping (49 percent to 55 percent),” Pulse Asia announced.

Second choice

But when asked by Pulse Asia who they would choose should their original choice for president withdraws from the elections, 24 percent of the respondent voters said they would vote for Moreno.

The survey results showed that second place in terms of second choice voter preferences is shared by Lacson at 14 percent, Pacquiao also at 14 percent, Robredo at 13 percent, and Marcos at 10 percent.

“While Manila Mayor Domagoso has the highest second choice voting figures in Classes C and D (36 percent and 22 percent, respectively), practically the same percentages of voters belonging to these socio-economic groupings cannot say who is their alternative presidential candidate/ do not want to identify their secondchoice presidential bet/are not voting for an alternative candidate for the post (22 percent to 26 percent),” Pulse Asia said.

For vice president, Pulse Asia survey results show that 35 percent of respondents named Sotto as their second choice or alternative vicepresidential candidate to support, while Duterte got only 15 percent followed by Pangilinan with 14 percent and Ong with 11 percent.

Endorsements

Religious group El Shaddai endorsed the tandem of Marcos and Duterte-Carpio, a development which the Marcos camp said shows “unity.”

In a statement, the camp of Marcos said the endorsement is “another testament that the call to liberate the Filipino people from the fetters of disunity gets stronger by the day.”

“Truly, the time has come for all to be of one desire, and that is, to hurdle the pandemic, and rise, as one nation, together with other nations, towards the road of recovery, even progress,” the camp of Marcos, son and namesake of the late dictator, said in the statement.

On Saturday, El Shaddai and its leader, Mike Velarde, endorsed the candidacy of Marcos and Duterte-Carpio in this year’s elections, before a gathering of thousands of members. The group also endorsed Marcos in his 2016 vice presidential run, where he was defeated by Robredo.

El Shaddai not solid

El Shaddai spiritual director emeritus and Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani said Velarde may have chosen to support Marcos and Duterte-Carpio, but he could not impose his choice on the sect’s members.

“I do not know exactly if he endorsed these candidates. If he did that it is his right but he cannot impose his choice on the El Shaddai Prayer Partners,” said Bacani.

He said he himself does not support the endorsement of Marcos and Duterte-Carpio. “I believe it is downright wrong to endorse Marcos Jr. I dissociate myself from that endorsement. I hope Bro. Mike searches more deeply into his conscience,” he added.

Meanwhile, Bataan Bishop Ruperto Santos said that he was surprised by Velarde’s move to endorse the tandem.

He believed that Velarde should have given his support to those who live according to God’s teachings.