Senator Grace Poe leads the senatorial bet for the May 2019 mid-term elections, according to Pulse Asia, which released Monday its nationwide survey—with a voters’ preference of 67.4 percent, retaining the solo lead.
Poe is followed by Taguig City Rep. Pia Cayetano, with the support of 55.7 percent, and Senator Cynthia Villar with 50.1 percent.
In a related development:
• Senate President Vicente Sotto appeased possible senatorial candidates in the coming midterm elections who are in the vicinity of 15 or 18 percent.
“That’s nothing to worry about, you should campaign. You should follow the important tenets of winning in the election. One, you need to be known. Two, you need to be liked. Three, you need to be voted and four, your votes should be counted.”
The Senate leader said that as far as he was concerned, he did not look at the rankings.
“And that is what a candidate, a serious candidate, should consider. You should look at your percentages, what percentage of the votes won to land on top 12, approximately at 35 percent,” he said.
“I look at the percentages and not on (sic) the ranking. The ranking could be deceiving…” he added.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter and current Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio followed close behind and ranked 3rd to 5th with 46.2 percent of support.
Senator Edgardo Angara landed in fifth place with 41.9 percent.
Among the probable winners or could be considered as part of the “winners circle” if the elections were held during the survey period were former Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Sergio Osmeña and Lito Lapid, Bureau of Corrections chief Ronald dela Rosa, and Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, Nancy Binay, JV Ejercito and Paolo Benigno Aquino.
Names that were earlier rumored for senatorial race such as Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go, PCOO Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson, former Interior and Local Government secretary Manuel Roxas II, Ilocos Gov. Imee Marcos, actress Agot Isidro and former President Gloria Arroyo did not make it to the top 13 list.
The Palace, in response to the survey results, said the elections were still months away.
“There is no election. All of us are focused on our jobs right now,” Roque stated in a news conference.
The survey also showed that if the May 2019 elections were held during the survey period, 13 out of the 58 individuals on the list would have the “statistical chance of winning.”
Most of the 13 are either current or former members of the Senate.
The survey was participated in by 1,800 registered Filipino voters nationwide with an error margin of +/-2 percent, all at 95 percent confidence level.
Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino remained as the lone opposition in the winning circle for the 2019 senatorial elections, according to the Pulse survey.
Meanwhile, Aquino cited the importance of having an opposition in the Senate ready to fight the administration every time it had a program that would prejudice poor Filipinos.
He was referring to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law.
As one of four senators who voted against its ratification, Aquino has been aggressively pushing for the suspension and rollback of the excise tax under the TRAIN Law.
