Duterte survives rape furor; Leni now No. 1

MANILA, Philippines - Despite reaping widespread condemnation for his comment about the rape and killing of an Australian missionary, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte remained the leading presidential candidate for the May 9 elections, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) pre-election survey.

Support for Duterte rose to 33 percent in the SWS April 18-20 poll from 27 percent in the March 30-April 2 survey.

The poll was taken in the days after Duterte’s comment at a campaign rally on April 12 had gone viral online.

It showed administration candidate Leni Robredo leaping past Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in the race for vice president. But with just two points between them, they remain in a statistical tie for the top spot.

In the presidential race, former frontrunner Sen. Grace Poe remained in second place with 24 percent voter preference – a slight increase from 23 percent.

Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Mar Roxas overtook Vice President Jejomar Binay in third spot with 19 percent from 18 percent in the previous survey.

Binay, standard bearer of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), ranked fourth with 14 percent, down six points from 20 percent.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago remained last with only two percent voter preference, slightly lower than the three percent she previously posted.

The SWS survey had a total 1,800 respondents, who are validated voters. It has sampling error margins of plus or minus two percentage points.

Duterte drew criticism over his comments about Australian missionary Jacqueline Hamill, who was gang-raped and killed by prisoners in a prison riot in Davao City in 1989.

Leni surges

Robredo’s voter preference rose by seven points to 26 percent, similar to Marcos’ 25 percent, which dipped a point from 26 percent in the March 30-April 2 poll.

Former frontrunner Sen. Francis Escudero fell to third place with 18 percent from 21 percent, followed closely by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano with 16 percent from 13 percent.

Senators Antonio Trillanes IV and Gregorio Honasan II remained at the bottom, garnering five percent and two percent, respectively. Both senators had previous ratings of five percent.

Fight not yet over

Roxas is still confident of victory in the upcoming polls, saying many voters are still undecided or may still change their minds.

“Ang punto ay hindi pa tapos ang laban (The point is the fight is not over yet),” Roxas told reporters after the third presidential debate in Dagupan, Pangasinan last Sunday.

“This is not about popularity. This is about who should run our country – who should be our president,” he added.

Roxas said voters are “still window shopping” and that about 25 percent of them are “still shifting ground.”

“I can see that in the end, our countrymen will say that this is not about entertainment, this is not for amusement. This is a serious matter and the next six years would be put to waste if we choose the wrong person,” he said.

He is hopeful that the last debate would help improve his numbers.

Akbayan Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez, spokesman for the LP-led Koalisyon Daang Matuwid, said Roxas continues to enjoy a strong support base. While Roxas has yet to top any presidential survey, Gutierrez said more Filipinos are coming out to support the LP standard bearer.

Relying on core group

The camp of Binay also downplayed the results of the latest SWS presidential survey, saying the Vice President’s core supporters will help him win in the May 9 polls.

Binay’s campaign spokesman Rico Quicho maintained the true survey will be on Election Day.

“No amount of tweaking of results will refute the strong core support for the Vice President,” Quicho said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Binay said he was the only presidential candidate who offered concrete solutions to the people’s needs during the last presidential debate.

“Last night, seven very real people asked us – the candidates for president – how we can solve their very real problems. Our responses have shown that my opponents are really out of touch with our people,” Binay said.

House-to-house campaign

In a bid to further increase the number of Robredo’s supporters, her children and relatives will fan out to do a house-to-house campaign less than two weeks before the May 9 elections.

After attending several caucuses in Kalinga and Ifugao and the presidential debate in Pangasinan Sunday, Robredo attended the assembly of local officials from Region 3 with President Aquino and Roxas in Clark, Pampanga yesterday.

Robredo’s eldest daughter Aika is scheduled to attend several multi-sectoral meetings in Metro Manila.

After attending their classes, Tricia – Robredo’s  second daughter – attended a Mar-Leni event at the Ateneo de Manila University and Jillian, her youngest daughter, represented her mother in a gathering at the Quezon City Circle.

Aika resigned from her work to focus full-time on her mother’s campaign while Tricia, who is taking up medicine, and Jillian, in high school, join the campaign trail when their schedules allow.

Bongbong questions survey

Marcos, on the other hand, questioned yesterday the latest SWS survey showing that his rival Robredo has overtaken him in a span of one week.

“We are quite surprised by the new survey because all other surveys show otherwise. I hope this is not a pattern for cheating,” he told reporters in Borongan, Eastern Samar.

He also stressed that he is not depending on surveys and will just continue to work hard in informing the people about his platform.

The 100,000-strong Fernando Poe Jr. for President Movement (FPJPM) also expressed fear that the SWS is laying the groundwork for the repeat of the alleged cheating in the 2004 presidential elections.

In a statement, Manny Fortes, national chairman of FPJPM, said the release of the SWS survey on the vice presidential race showing Robredo’s rating suddenly jumping six points to gain the lead is reminiscent of the 2004 race between then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and movie icon Fernando Poe Jr.

“If you can still remember, toward the end of the elections, SWS showed a survey that Arroyo was ahead of FPJ. They also had an exit poll showing that Arroyo won over FPJ in the National Capital Region but the election results showed FPJ winning by a wide margin over the re-electionist in the NCR,” he said.

He said the survey is part of the cheating scheme because it makes people believe that Robredo is a strong candidate so they can justify her eventual winning in the polls through vote manipulation. – With Alexis Romero, Paolo Romero, Perseus Echeminada