DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is still the leading presidential candidate here in the province, results of a recent radio survey shows.

With 133 days to go before the national and local elections scheduled in May, the Boholano electorate appears to be a potential voting base for Duterte and Liberal Party standard bearer Mar Roxas, splitting local voters’ preference by a slim gap that is nearly identical to a previous survey also conducted over Station dyRD’s “Inyong Alagad”.

During the two-hour radio survey, listeners were made to choose from five (5) presidential aspirants and asked the question: “Niining lima nga nagtinguha mamahimo’ng sunod nga Presidente sa nasud, Kinsa’y imong pili-on, kung himoon ang eleksyon karong adlawa?” (Among these five aspirants to become the next President of the country, who will you vote for if elections were held today?)

Conducted on Thursday (December 31, 2015), the random survey yielded ninety-three respondents who phoned-in their preferences for president, vice-president and for governor of the province, with Duterte emerging as the early frontrunner among five hopefuls perceived as the most likely candidates to succeed President Benigno Aquino III, whose 6-year term ends on June 30, 2016.

PRESIDENTIAL CHOICE

For now, it’s still a toss-up between Duterte and Roxas among the Boholano electorate, although the Davao city mayor has slightly increased his edge over the former interior secretary clinching 55.9% (or 52 votes) of the total respondents, while Roxas garnered 44.1%  (or 41 votes) of the total phoned-in responses.

Despite having spoken against Pope Francis and the Catholic Church that may have offended a predominantly-Catholic voting populace, Duterte apparently still holds a strong mass-based appeal among Visayan voters, Boholanos are no exception.  Meanwhile, the steady endorsement from top local officials aligned with the ruling Liberal Party keeps the popularity of Roxas afloat.

The respondents were made to choose from five presidential aspirants who have consistently figured among viable candidates for the presidency, which included the names of Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senator Grace Poe and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

A previous survey, carried by dyRD’s “Inyong Alagad”  on December 4, 2015 indicates a tight race for the presidency between Duterte and Roxas here in the province.

Binay, once a dominant contender for the presidential race slipped to a distant third getting the approval of 5.1% of survey respondents. Serious allegations of corruption has rocked Binay’s campaign.

Santiago, running under the People’s Reform Party (PRP) and Poe, who launched her presidential bid under the newly-formed Partido Pilipinas hugged the lower end of the survey with Santiago obtaining just one vote.

Poe, who topped previous “Inyong Alagad” surveys did not figure in the callers scorecard as she was seemingly shutout from the random poll and is now dwelling at the bottom of the five-field presidential contenders.

In contrast to the national pre-election surveys conducted by Pulse Asia and the Social Weather Stations (SWS), Binay and Poe are in a statistical tie for first place in the SWS survey while Binay leads Duterte by 10% in the Pulse Asia survey.

Results in the SWS December 12-14, 2015 BusinessWorld-SWS pre-election survey that generated responses from 1200 registered voters via face-to-face interviews and a sampling margin of error at ±3%,  Poe and Binay topped other presidential hopefuls each obtaining 26%;; Roxas-22%; Duterte-20% and Santiago-4%.

The Pulse Asia December 4-11, 2015 survey using 1,800 respondents nationwide showed Binay with 33%; Duterte-23%; Poe-21%; Roxas-17% and Santiago-4%.

VICE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

In the vice presidential derby, a surprise leader emerged as the dominant candidate – LP bet Leni Robredo, who was the front-runner in a pack of six VP contenders with 41.9% trailed by Nacionalista Party Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos-29% followed by PDP’s Senator Alan Peter Cayetano with 22% and Senators Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan and Antonio Trillanes, lV, also of the Nacionalista Party were at the tail end of the list.

It was a different tally in the national vice presidential voter’s preference surveys. Pulse Asia showed Escudero ahead by 29%, followed by Marcos with 23%, Cayetano 18%, Robredo 14%, Honasan 9% and Trillanes 4%.

Escudero, as with the Pulse Asia Survey was also ahead by 30%, Robredo 19%, Marcos 19%, Cayetano 17%, Honasan 8% and Trillanes 5%.

CHATTO AHEAD

In the gubernatorial race, two term Governor Edgar Chatto outpolled independent candidate Loay Mayor Rosemarie Imboy by an eleven percentage point margin, 55.9% – 44.1%.

Imboy’s unexpected point margin difference was considered “uncomfortably close”, according to political pundits who closely monitored the results of the phoned in survey.

Chatto’s victories in the previous elections showed runaway results with the 2013 elections where Boholanos gave him a resounding 67.55% of the votes against Concepcion “Che-che” Toribio De los Reyes 30.47%

In the 2010 elections, Chatto won by 40.64% against Julius Caesar Herrera’s 30.22% and actor Cesar Montano with 27.85%.

Imboy also boasts of overwhelming results in her run for Mayor in 2010 when he beat Magileo Wilfredo Flores 60.15% – 39.85% while in the 2013 elections Imboy garnered 62.33% of the votes against Tiburcio Bullecer’s 37.67%.

The “Inyong Alagad” random survey among radio listeners shows that Boholano voters have yet to make up their minds as to who they will vote for regardless of the issues, candidates’ personalities and other factors.(Chito M. Visarra)