SWS: Sotto remains on top of senate field

Senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto III continues to lead in the senatorial race, according to the latest BusinessWorld-Social Weather Stations survey conducted this month.

This is despite his rating dropping three percentage points to 56 percent from last December's survey.

Sotto's closest rival for the top spot is former senator Panfilo Lacson with 49 percent, which is higher by three percentage points than his figures for the previous survey.

Ranking third in the poll are Sen. Ralph Recto and former food security presidential assistant Francis N. Pangilinan, whose ratings saw similar 10-point drops to 46 percent.

The nationwide survey was conducted from Jan. 8-10 with 1,200 respondents and sampling error margins of ±3 points for national percentages.

The other candidates for the senatorial race that made it to the top ten of the poll are:

• Senate President Franklin Drilon (43 percent)
• Sen. Sergio Osmeña III (42 percent)
• former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri (39 percent)
• Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao (37 percent)
• former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima (33 percent)
• former senator Richard Gordon (31 percent)

The survey showed that only 32 percent of respondents chose a full slate of 12 names. Respondents named just 7.9 candidates each on average. --BAP/JST, GMA News