Second District Rep. Aris Aumentado outpaced Governor Art Yap in the race for Bohol’s gubernatorial seat based on a survey conducted by a Quezon City-based research firm less than a month before the May 9 elections.

In a survey conducted by Spheres Research Services (formerly Ilaursa Research Services) from April 9 to April 13, Aumentado was the top choice for governor of 57 percent of the respondents while Yap trailed with 40 percent of the respondents favoring him.

Meanwhile, voter preference for other gubernatorial candidates were at one percent each for Hercules Castillo and Concepcion Flores, who passed away in March. Another one percent of the respondents were still undecided.

Spheres senior research manager Jojo Carlom said the independent, non-commissioned survey sampled 2,700 Bohol residents who were deemed “likely voters” with 900 respondents each from the province’s three districts.

The province-wide survey has a ± 1.9 percent error margin while district-level estimate for each of the three geographic areas is at ± 3.3 error margin.

Aumentado overwhelmingly leads in the first district and second district, his bailiwick, while Yap was the top choice in the third district where he was congressman from 2010 to 2019.

Aumentado tallied 57 percent, 66 percent and 47 percent in the first, second, and third districts, respectively.

Meanwhile, 39 percent, 32 percent, and 49 percent favored Yap in the first, second and, third districts, respectively.

According to Carlom, they deployed 30 outsourced interviewers from Cebu to conduct the survey and 20 of the firm’s personnel from Manila to supervise the operations.

“Some of the interviewers came from Cebu but they were supervised by our team from Manila para walang bias,” he said.

The firm sampled over 50 respondents in each of the province’s 47 towns and over 100 respondents in Tagbilaran City.

Clarom added that Spheres also conducted pre-election surveys in various other localities including Camarines Sur, Quezon, Laguna and Quezon City.

“That’s part of our nationwide research. Actually sa Quezon City, naka sampung survey na kami,” said Clarom.

He added that they also do market research for companies from various industries. 

Clarom said the firm was previously known as Ilaursa Research Services before it became Spheres Research Services officially in October last year when it received its registration from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We decided to put up another firm but the same people are running it except sa owner,” said Clarom.

Clarom was a statistical assistant for the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and was senior research manager at Pulse Asia before joining Ilaursa.

He noted that in 1996, he was deployed by the SWS to Bohol and was part of the firm’s team which trained personnel of the Holy Name University (formerly Divine World College) Center for Research and Publications including current HNU-CRP director Ma. Paz Espiritu.  

Presidential race

Meanwhile, Sphere’s presidential preference survey in Bohol showed results similar to that of national polls with Bongbong Marcos leading the pack and Vice President Leni Robredo at distant second.

The survey showed that 66 percent of voters in Bohol would choose Marcos as president while 17 percent preferred Robredo to assume the country’s top government post.

She was followed by Many Pacquiao, Isko Moreno Damagoso and Ping Lacson who garnered nine percent, four percent and two percent, respectively.

None showed preference for other presidential candidates Norberto Gonzales, Ernie Abella, Faisal Mangondato, Jose Montemayor, Jr., and Leody De Guzman

Although the percentages differed, Spheres’ rankings were consistent with the latest poll result released by Pulse Asia on May 2 based on its survey conducted from April 16 to 21.

Other posts

In the race for Bohol’s second top executive post, Yap’s running mate Vice Governor Rene Relampagos leads over Provincial Board Member Victor Dionisio Balite.

Some 59 percent prefer Relampagos to be reelected while 40 percent want Balite to be the next vice governor.

Spheres’ survey indicated that incumbent Rep. Edgar Chatto is the clear top choice to be the representative of the first district scoring a rating of 73 percent.

He was followed by Fabio Ontong and and Marybelle Dela Serna who got 17 and 10 percent respectively.

In the second district, Van-van Aumentado leads with a preferential score of 56 percent while Jaja Jumamoy is at distant second with 38 percent.

They were followed by Gerry Garcia with seven percent.

Meanwhile, Rep. Alexie Tutor holds a commanding lead over Valencia Mayor Kat-Kat Lim in the race for the third district’s congressional seat.

The survey showed that 65 percent prefer Tutor to be reelected while 34 percent want Lim to be the district’s next representative in Congress.