Poe, Villar remain top faves to win Senate race —Pulse Asia

Incumbent Senators Grace Poe and Cynthia Villar remained the top favorites to win the May 2019 midterm senatorial elections, Pulse Asia's latest survey results showed.

The survey, released on Thursday and covering March 23 to 27, showed Poe, topnotcher in the 2013 Senate polls, getting the highest rating with 72.6 percent.

Reelectionist Senators Cynthia Villar and Sonny Angara ranked second and third with 63.7 and 58.5 percent rating, respectively, followed by Bong Go, former special assistant to the President, at fourth place with 52.2 percent rating.

The latest survey also showed administration Senate bet Francis Tolentino and former Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada with an improve rating compared to the last survey, respectively getting a 35.7 and 35.2 rating.

Next in the ranking are: Taguig Representative Pia Cayetano (52.2 percent); former Senator Lito Lapid (48.4 percent); Senator Nancy Binay (48.5 percent); former Philippine National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa (44.8 percent); former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. (40.9 percent); and Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos (39 percent).

Senator Koko Pimentel and Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas, who ranked higher in Pulse Asia's March survey, got lower ratings at 33.6 and 31.3 percent, respectively.

Senator Bam Aquino, meanwhile, got a rating of 33.8 percent, while Serge Osmeña got 33 percent.

Tolentino was a former Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs and is currently a member of the administration slate Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) as well as the Senate slate of the ruling party PDP-Laban.

During campaign stops of the administration slate HNP where Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte serves as campaign manager, Sara—President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter—would pitch for Go, Dela Rosa, and Tolentino first before the rest of the field.

The March Pulse Asia poll involved 1,800 respondents aged 18 years old and above.

The margin of error was two to three percent.

In subnational estimates, the margin of error for Metro Manila was 6.5 percent, 3.5 percent for rest of Luzon, 5.3 percent for Visayas and 4.7 for Mindanao.

The key developments during the conduct of the Pulse Asia survey were: the water crisis in Metro Manila, the damage brought by El Niño reaching at least P2.8 billion, the release of President Duterte’s ‘narcolist’ which supposedly names elected officials involved in the illegal drug trade and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales and former Foreign Affairs Chief Albert del Rosario filing a complaint against China before the International Criminal Court for allegedly committing crimes against humanity over aggression versus Filipino fishermen and destroying marine resources in West Philippine Sea. — MDM, GMA News