Chiz, Loren top Pulse Asia survey on senatoriables

December 11, 2012 3:16pm

Two senatorial candidates in next year's elections who are both guest candidates under the ruling Liberal Party (LP) and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) dominated the latest Pulse Asia survey, the result of which was released Tuesday.

Incumbent senators Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Loren Legarda shared the first and second places, with 74 percent of the 1,200 respondents saying they would vote for Escudero, and 69.3 percent saying they would vote for Legarda.

“The rest of the list of probable winners is evenly split with 5 candidates coming from the coalition led by the Liberal Party (LP) and five others belonging to the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA),” Pulse Survey said in a statement.

“Virtually all of the probable winners are either former or current members of Congress,” it added.

With a statistical ranking of third to fourth places was another administration bet, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, with 60.1 percent. San Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito Estrada of UNA, meanwhile, has a statistical ranking of third to sixth places with 57 percent.

UNA bet Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce Enrile Jr., with 53.2 percent, and LP guest candidate and former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, who got 52.2 percent, shared the fourth to seventh places.

The survey also showed that LP guest candidate Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has an overall voter preference of 50.2 percent, translating to a statistical ranking of fifth to eight places. UNA candidate Sen. Gringo Honasan, with a score of 44.9 percent, is ranked seventh to 12th.

Completing the list of probable winners are four candidates who share 8th to 12th places: Senator Antonio Trillanes IV (43.2 percent) and Aurora Rep. Edgardo Angara (40.8 percent), both under LP; and Nancy Binay (41.3 percent) and former Senator Migz Zubiri (40.5 percent), who are from UNA.

The others who are close but did not make it to the “Magic 12” were former Senator Jamby Madrigal (LP) and former Senator Dick Gordon (UNA), who ranked in the 13th to 17th places. — Rouchelle Dinglasan/KBK, GMA News