Villar tops RPMD senatorial survey

MANILA, Philippines — Former public works secretary Mark Villar has topped a survey on the preferred senatorial candidates in the 2022 national elections, according to the RP-Mission and Development Foundation Inc. (RPMD).

The non-commissioned survey, conducted from Oct. 17 to 27, used face-to-face interviews nationwide with 10,000 registered voters as respondents.

The survey showed Mark Villar and Raffy Tulfo enjoyed a majority of the voters’ preferences with 53.5 percent and 53.1 percent ratings, respectively.

Dr. Paul Martinez of the RPMD said among the 30 candidates, 16 have a statistical chance of winning, with 12 of them being former or incumbent members of Congress.

Following Villar and Tulfo were Sorsogon Gov. Francis Escudero (48.9 percent), Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano (48.5 percent), Antique Rep. Loren Legarda (48.2 percent) and former vice president Jejomar Binay (37.4 percent).

In 7th to12th place were former senator Jinggoy Estrada (35.1 percent), Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian (34.6 percent), Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri (33.5 percent), Sen. Risa Hontiveros (30.2 percent), former Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista (29.1 percent) and Sen. Joel Villanueva (28.7 percent).

Ranking 13th to 16th were Sen. Richard Gordon (28.3 percent), former senator Joseph Victor Estrada Ejercito (27.5 percent), former representative Gilbert Teodoro (26.2 percent) and former senator Gringo Honasan (25.8 percent).

The survey had a plus or minus two percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence level and forms part of the presidential and vice presidential survey series called “RPMD-Halalan 2022.”