Erap tied with Villar in new Pulse Asia survey

04/29/2010 | 09:19 AM
SOPHIA M. DEDACE, GMANews.TV






Original Story: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/189664/erap-tied-with-villar-in-new-pulse-asia-survey


The race to the presidency has taken a new twist as former President Joseph Estrada caught up with Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., who both ranked second in the latest survey conducted by Pulse Asia this month.

Estrada’s voting preference picked up 2 percentage points, while Villar’s rating fell by 5 percentage points — giving them a score of 20 percentage points each.

Sen. Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party maintained his lead at 39 percent, 2 percent higher than the survey Pulse Asia conducted last March.

Administration bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr. maintained his score of 7 percent, while religious leader Eddie Villanueva gained a point to score 3 percent. Sen. Richard Gordon’s rating remained at 2 percent.

Gordon has assailed pre-election surveys, describing them as tending "to create a bandwagon effect on the voters and effectively strips off voters of their right to select their candidates based on their platform and credentials." [See: Gordon sues SWS, Pulse Asia over election-related surveys]

In the latest Pulse Asia survey, those who received 1 percentage point or less were disqualified bet Vetellano Acosta (1 percent), Nicanor Perlas (0.3 percent), Olongapo City Councilor John Carlos de los Reyes (0.2 percent), and Sen. Jamby Madrigal (0.1 percent). Ironically, Acosta posted a higher score than the qualified bets.

Binay highest gainer

As Estrada’s rating soared, so did that of his running mate, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, who zoomed past erstwhile second placer Sen. Loren Legarda.

Binay gained nine points to score 28 percent, while Legarda lost three points and scored 20 percent.

Days before the survey was conducted, Sen. Francis Escudero announced he was endorsing Aquino and Binay, instead of Legarda, his former party-mate at the Nationalist People’s Coalition. [See: No problem with Escudero endorsing Noynoy-Binay, LP bets say]

Sen. Manuel Roxas II remained on top with 37 percentage points, although the rating was six points lower than his previous score.

Former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Bayani Fernando and television personality Edu Manzano got 3 percent each, while former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Perfecto Yasay Jr. got 1 percent, former broadcaster Jay Sonza got 0.3 percent, and Ang Kapatiran’s Dominador Chipeco Jr. got 0.05 percent.

Nine percent of the respondents gave no answer or were undecided.

Pulse Asia conducted the survey from April 23 to 25 on 1,800 respondents. The pre-election poll had a ± 2 percent error margin.

Pulse Asia’s latest survey is different from the newest survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations, where Aquino scored 38 percent, Villar posted 26 percent, and Estrada ranked third with 17 percent. [see: Noynoy gets 2-digit lead in new SWS survey] — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV


Original Story: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/189664/erap-tied-with-villar-in-new-pulse-asia-survey