Aquino leads survey; Acosta out of the race

Saturday, 06 March 2010 04:55 PM Maui A. Hermitanio

The survey war between presidential bets is on and Liberal Party bet Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III takes the lead in the latest Pulse Asia survey. Aquino gained a 7-point lead against main competitor, Nacionalista Party’s Manuel ‘Manny’ Villar.

In the Pulse Asia survey conducted on Feb. 21 to 25, Aquino got 36 percent, down by only one percentage point from the previous survey while Villar slipped down by 6 percentage points to 29 percent.

Political analyst Ramon Casiple said the drop in Villar’s rating may be due to rumors that he is the ‘secret candidate’ of the administration. “Villar has so far skirted issues against the administration and is thus perceived to be Ms Arroyo’s secret candidate,” he said in an Inquirer online report.

Villar on the other hand, said he is still happy with the survey results as long as it’s a single-digit lead [by Aquino].

Last month, rumors spread in social networks that the Aquino camp hired a PR team to malign and spread information about Villar being ‘Gloria’s secret candidate. Villar and Aquino are rivals as front runners in the presidential race.

The rating of other presidential candidates are: ousted President Joseph “Erap” Estrada (18 percent); administration candidate Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro (7 percent); Eddie Villanueva (2 percent); Sen. Richard Gordon (1 percent); Sen. Jamby Madrigal (0.3 percent), Nicanor Perlas (0.2 percent) and JC de los Reyes (0 percent).

The 1,800 survey respondents based their choice among the following reasons: Not corrupt/clean record (26 percent); cares for the poor (22 percent); can do something, is doing something, will do something (14 percent); helps, helping others (11 percent); good person (10 percent); used to governing, has experience (7 percent); knowledgeable/ intelligent (5 percent); listens to people (3 percent); and other reasons (1 percent).

KBL bet out

Meanwhile Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) bet Vetellano Acosta was declared nuisance candidate by the Comelec. The decision said Acosta falsified his documents and information. Acosta’s name will remain in printed ballots but votes for him will be considered ‘stray votes’ according to Comelec. It was Aquino’s lawyers who petitioned against Acosta.

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