Poe maintains lead over Binay in latest Pulse Asia survey commissioned by ABS-CBN
Escudero and Marcos are tied at the top for the vice presidential race
Poe and Escudero were also the top second choices in the same survey
The poll was conducted at the height of the People Power 30th celebration last month
MANILA, Philippines – Senator Grace Poe maintained her lead over closest rival Vice President Jejomar Binay in the latest Pulse Asia survey commissioned by ABS-CBN and conducted during the ‘People Power’ week between February 16 to 27.
Poe got 26 percent votes from the respondents, while Binay was a close second with 24 percent. Pulse Asia, however, said the 2-point difference between the two frontrunners made them ‘statistically tied’ at the top.
Not far behind is Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who is also 2 points behind Binay with 22 percent. He is followed by former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas with 19 percent and Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago with 3 percent.
Other candidates included in the list – Roy Señeres, Mel Mendoza and Dante Valencia – all got below 1 percent.
Vice presidential race
In the race for the vice presidency, Senators Francis Escudero and Bongbong Marcos are neck-and-neck at the top; both getting 26 percent of the votes.
In third place is Camarines Sur representative and Liberal Party (LP) bet Leni Robredo with 18 percent.
She is followed by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano with 13 percent, Senator Gringo Honasan with 6 percent, and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV with 3 percent.
Second choices
Credit: ABS-CBN
The ABS-CBN-Pulse Asia poll also included second choices for both the presidential and vice presidential hopefuls.
Asked with the question “If your chosen candidate does not pursue his/her candidacy for whatever reason, whom among the remaining people would you vote for as PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES if the 2016 election were to be held today?”, respondents still chose Poe as the top pick with 29 percent.
Poe is followed by Binay (22 %), Roxas (15%), Duterte (12 %) and Santiago (8%).
Escudero is also the top second choice for vice president with 27 %; followed by Marcos (17%), Cayetano (16%), Robredo (12%), Honasan (8%) and Trillanes (8%).
Geographical areas
Poe dominated two of the 4 geographical areas, except in Visayas where she placed second with 22 % to Roxas’ 33%; and in Mindanao trailing behind Duterte (47%) and Roxas (17%) with only 16%. She got 30% in NCR and 32 % in Balance of Luzon.
On the other hand, Binay, while still registering strong numbers, remains a runner up to Poe in NCR (26%) and Balance of Luzon (30%). He is third behind Roxas and Poe in Visayas with only 20%; and tied at third with Poe behind Duterte and Roxas in Mindanao with 16%.
Social classes
Among the social classes, Duterte was the most popular among the ABC Class with 27%; while Poe leads in Class D (26%) and E (27%).
Binay, who used to be very popular among Class E, was tied with Roxas and relegated to second place with 23%.
According to ABS-CBN, the latest Pulse Asia poll had a unique feature called the ‘secret voting’, in which “respondents gave their answers in sealed ballots opened only during tabulation.”
The survey was conducted at the height of the EDSA People Power 30th anniversary commemoration last month among 5,200 respondents nationwide. It has smaller margin of error of +/- 1.4% due to its larger sampling size.