Villar tops poll as incumbents, ex-senators dominate SWS survey

Incumbent senators Cynthia Villar and Grace Poe, and Pateros-Taguig Representative Pia Cayetano topped the senatorial survey commissioned by presidential adviser on political affairs and prospective administration candidate Francis Tolentino.

Villar was alone at No. 1 with 53 percent, while Poe and Cayetano were tied for the second and third slots with identical 43 percent.

The senatorial preferences item Tolentino sponsored was implemented within the Third quarter Social Weather Report Survey conducted from September 15 to 23.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide: 600 in Balance Luzon, and 300 each in Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao (sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao).

Respondents were presented with a list of candidates and were asked to choose 12 names in answering the question, "If elections were to take place today, whom would you most probably vote for as senators of the Philippines?"