The Philippine Online Chronicles

In a bizarre shift in survey rankings 11 days before the national elections, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard bearers former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay jumped to second place in the April survey of Pulse Asia.

The surveys, still dominated by Liberal Party (LP) standard bearers Senators Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas, saw a huge dip in the ratings of Nacionalista Party (NP) standard bearers Senators Manny Villar and Loren Legarda.

Villar, facing fresh controversies such as the alleged Norzagaray land grabbing issue and the alleged manipulation of stock exchange rules for the benefit of his companies, saw a five percent dip landing him in a tie with Estrada at 20 percent.

Aquino and Estrada meanwhile upped their ratings by two percent, with the former holding a formidable 19-percent lead at 39 percent.

The ratings of the other presidentiables did not significantly change.

VP race

After getting the endorsements of Senator Francis Escudero and the Ang Ladlad party-list, Binay overtook Legarda at second place by gaining nine percent. Now at 28 percent, Binay leads Legarda, who dipped by three percent.

Roxas, despite getting the biggest slide in the survey (six percent), is still leading the race at 37 percent.

April issues

Pulse Asia's final survey, which was conducted on April 23 to 25, saw various issues hounding the contenders.

These issues include the defections of administration party stalwarts to NP and to LP, but this development did not change the seven-percent rating of Lakas-KAMPI bet Gilberto Teodoro.

The increase in Estrada's ratings and the drop of Villar's standing came after the former accused the latter of violating the rules of the Philippine Stock Exchange for the benefit of Villar's housing firms. The drop of Villar's ratings came despite the endorsement of the Kabataan party-list.

Aquino meanwhile solidified his lead despite being “endorsed” by Maguindanao Massacre principal suspect Andal Ampatuan, Jr. Aquino warned on Bloomberg last Monday that “only fraud” can stop him from winning the presidency and that if he loses, there will be mass demonstrations that could make the Thai Red Shirt protests “mild.”

Bagumbayan's Senator Richard Gordon and independent candidate Senator Jamby Madrigal are still reeling at sixth place and last place, respectively. The two presidentiables have sued Pulse Asia and polling firm Social Weather Stations on alleged "fraudulent" survey results.

Undecided voters comprised nine percent of the 1,800 respondents in both surveys, which had a plus/minus two percent margin of error.