Duterte lost supporters over rape remark – Pulse exec

MANILA, Philippines – Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial rape remark affected his numbers in the latest presidential survey, an executive of pollster Pulse Asia said yesterday.

Although the tough-talking mayor sustained his lead over his rivals, Duterte’s voter preference rating in the April 19 to 24 survey commissioned by ABS-CBN dropped by one point from 34 percent to 33 percent.

Support for Duterte declined among voters in Metro Manila and those who belong to the higher socio-economic class, Pulse Asia research director Ana Maria Tabunda told The STAR.

Tabunda said Duterte lost a majority of supporters after he received flak over his rape comment last month involving an Australian missionary who was raped and killed in a hostage-taking incident in a Davao prison in 1989.

Sen. Grace Poe and Liberal Party presidential bet Manuel Roxas II are statistically tied at second spot with 22 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Poe’s rating was unchanged while Roxas’ score increased by two points.

United Nationalist Alliance standard bearer Vice President Jejomar Binay obtained 18 percent, down by a point from 19 percent in the previous pre-election survey conducted from April 12 to 17.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s rating stayed at two percent.

Despite the single point drop in Duterte’s rating, Tabunda said looking at the breakdown would reveal the effect of the rape joke issue, which broke a week before the survey was conducted.

Decline in NCR, Class ABC

Among geographic areas, Duterte lost a majority of voters in the National Capital Region, dropping nine points from 43 percent to 34 percent.

He also lost three points in his bailiwick Mindanao (61 percent to 58 percent), while he obtained four points in the Visayas (28 percent to 32 percent). He sustained his 20 percent rating in Luzon.

Among socio-economic classes, Duterte dropped 10 points among voters from Class ABC (47 percent to 37 percent) and three points from Class E (34 percent to 31 percent). His 33 percent support from voters from Class D was flat.

Tabunda said the significant decline in Duterte’s numbers showed that his rape joke had an effect on the voters.

She said voters from Metro Manila were faster to react to issues.

Prior to the advent of social media, Tabunda said their academics would say that it could take as much as two weeks before an issue gets the attention of the public.

While Duterte is holding a comfortable double-digit lead over his rivals, Tabunda said his numbers are still fluid, considering the latest allegations of hidden wealth thrown at the mayor.

Tabunda was referring to the allegations of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that Duterte has hidden wealth, which he did not declare in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

Based on the latest survey, support for Poe among Metro Manila voters increased by four points (22 percent to 26 percent). Santiago also gained a point from two percent to three percent. Roxas and Binay sustained their ratings at 11 and 19 percent, respectively.

The number of undecided voters in Metro Manila increased from three percent to six percent.

Among Class ABC, Roxas’ rating increased by eight points from 15 percent to 23 percent.

Binay’s score increased by a point from 15 percent to 16 percent. Poe lost two points from 14 percent to 12 percent.

The survey used face-to-face interviews of 4,000 respondents and has a sampling margin error of plus or minus 1.5 percent for the nationwide results. The Metro Manila figures have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percent.