Chiz, Grace Poe drop in latest SWS survey, taken before Heart blowup

(Updated 5:34 p.m.) Polls track the fickle preferences of voters, this time sending wake up calls to a couple of high flyers. Election frontrunners Senator Francis Escudero and former MTRCB chair Grace Poe dropped from their previous rankings in the latest survey conducted by BusinessWorld and Social Weather Stations (SWS), with Poe descending five places.

 

The survey, conducted between March 15 to 17, 2013 and published in BusinessWorld on Tuesday, indicated that Escudero dropped from second place to tie with San Juan Rep. JV Ejercito in third to fourth places. This is the first time that Escudero dropped from second place since SWS conducted surveys on election 2013 front runners in August last year.

 

Ejercito was in the ninth to 10th places rank in the last SWS survey conducted between February 15 to 17.

 

Chiz's love life  

On Monday when he was asked whether the issue with his love life had affected his campaign, Escudero answered: "Siyempre, palagi. Kailangan namin magtrabaho pa."

 

The survey, however, was conducted even before the controversy regarding his love life blew up in the media. His girlfriend Heart Evangelista's parents held their first press conference against the senator on March 19.

 

Grace Poe, meanwhile, had a significant drop from fifth to six places to 11th place. But this was also her ranking before she was placed in the fifth to six places in January by the same polling firm.

 

Escudero and Grace Poe both used to be common candidates of the Liberal Party-led coalition and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) until they were formally dropped by the latter on February 21.

 

Aside from Escudero and Poe, those who are statistically poised to get Senate seats are re-electionists Loren Legarda (1st) and Alan Peter Cayetano (2nd), Ejercito (3rd-4th), Nancy Binay (5th-7th), former Las Pinas Rep. Cynthia Villar (5th-7th), re-electionists Koko Pimentel (5th-7th), Antonio Trillanes IV (8th), and Gregorio Honasan (9th), Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV (10th), Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara (12th), Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile (13th-14th), former Sen. Jun Magsaysay (13th-14th), and former Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri (15th).

 

Given the statistical ties, SWS said that the "possible team Pnoy-UNA score could range from 10-2 to 7-5."

 

Legarda, Escudero, Cayetano, Villar, Pimentel, Trillanes, Aquino, Angara, and Magsaysay are running under the administration-led coalition.   On the other hand, Ejercito, Binay, Honasan, Enrile, and Zubiri are running under UNA.

 

In the latest survey, Cayetano, Ejercito, Honasan, and Magsaysay made noticeable gains.  

 

Cayetano is now at second place from his usual third place. Honasan, in the last survey, had dropped to 15th while Magsaysay was at the 15th to 16th places in the last three surveys.

 

Meanwhile, Villar dropped from 4th to 5th to 7th places while Zubiri to 15th place from the 11th to 12th places.

 

The other candidates ranked in the survey were former Senator Maria Consuelo "Jamby" A. Madrigal (16th-17th), former Senator Dick Gordon (16th-17th), former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros (18th), former Senate President Ernesto Maceda (19th), former Tarlac Governor Tingting Cojuangco (20th-21st), Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay (20th-21st), Bro. Eddie Villanueva (22nd), Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn (23rd), Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino (24th), Bro. Mars Llasos (25th-28th), Sammy Alcantara (25th-28th), Ricardo Penson (25th-28th), Ramon Montaño (25th-28th), Bal Falcone (25th-28th), Bro. Lito Yap David (29th-32nd), JC De Los Reyes (29th-32nd), Christian Señeres (29th-32nd), and Grego Belgica (33rd).