Miriam still campus favorite

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential candidate Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago made a clean sweep of new pre-election campus surveys as she launched on Friday a nationwide university tour that is expected to further buoy her popularity throughout the campaign period.

Santiago led poll results released after the start of the campaign period on Feb. 9 by the following schools: University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), Holy Angel University in Pampanga, and the Colegio de San Juan de Letran campus in Calamba.

At UA&P, Santiago got 43.2 percent of the total 696 votes. She was followed by Sen. Grace Poe (18 percent), Liberal Party bet Mar Roxas (15.5 percent), Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte (14.9 percent), and Vice President Jejomar Binay (8.3 percent).

A top official of Holy Angel, meanwhile, posted on Facebook results of a survey of 5,000 students where Santiago led at 40 percent, followed by Duterte (34 percent), Poe (12 percent), Binay (7 percent), and Roxas (4 percent).

At the Calamba campus of Letran, Santiago was chosen as president by 58.48 percent of students polled, followed by Duterte (27.68 percent), Poe (7.59 percent), Binay (3.57 percent), and Roxas (2.68 percent).

“It appears that if all university students go out to vote in the May elections and influence their peers and elders to throw their support behind me, I will be the next president of the Philippines,” Santiago said.

Prior to the campaign period, the senator won polls in the following campuses: University of the Philippines Los Baños (65.75 percent in December 2015 and 86 percent in January 2016); UP Manila (59.48 percent); Polytechnic University of the Philippines (64.07 percent); University of Santo Tomas (66 percent); Ateneo de Manila University (36.61 percent), and University of Northern Philippines (35.85 percent).