A May 10 press statement from the SWS said the first ten senatorial bets are “safe” into the homestretch in the sense “of being statistically above 13th place.”
SWS said the last two seats are being “statistically contended” by Senators Edgardo Angara and Joker Arroyo and former Senator Vicente Sotto who are all with TU, “thus making four the maximum number of seats for TU, regardless of who drops out of the tie.”
Senator Aquilino Pimentel’s Son, Aquilino III, ranked 14th nationwide. He also ranked 14th in Mindanao, 17-18 in Visayas, 13th in the National Capital Region and 14th in the rest of Luzon.
The survey was conducted on May 2 to 4.
The third Mindanawon senatorial aspirant, Rep. Prospero Pichay of Surigao del Sur, landed 17th nationwide; 13th in Mindanao; 11th in the Visayas, 20 to 21 in NCR and 16th to 17th in the rest of Luzon.
The fourth Mindanawon aspirant, ranked 26th nationwide, 22nd in Mindanao, 27th in the Visayas, 26-29 in the NCR; and 27-31 in the rest of Luzon.
Based on the SWS’ table of senatorial preferences nationwide, Zubiri ranked 16th to 17th in February; 17th in March; 14th on April 14 to 17 and 9th to 10th in the latest survey.
Pimentel consistently ranked 13th to 14th: 13-14 in February, 14th in March, 11th -13th in April and 14th in May.
Pichay was 22nd in February; 20th in March; 18th to 19th in April and 17th in May.
Zubiri and Pichay have long campaign exposures through television advertisements and hundreds of thousands of posters and streamers across Mindnao.
Nationwide, voters chose former Senator Loren Legarda (GO) as number one; Senator Manuel Villar (GO) as second; Rep. Francis Joseph Escudero (GO) as third; Senator Francis Pangilinan (Ind) as 4th. Senator Panfilo Lacson ranked 5th; Rep. Benigno Simeon Aquino III (GO) ranked 6th; Senator Ralph Recto (TU) is 7th; Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano (GO) is 8th; Rep. Zubiri (TU) is 9-10 along with former senator Gregorio Honasan (TU); Sen. Edgardo Angara (TU) is 11th while Sen. Joker Arroyo (TU) is 12th; former senator Sotto is 13th, Pimentel is 14th; and Michael Defensor (TU) and Antonio Trillanes (GO) share the 15th to 16th rank.
In Mindanao, the voters chose Legarda as first, Zubiri as second, Villar as third, Pangilinan, Lacson and movie actor Cesar Montano (TU) in the 4-6 slot; Aquino, Recto and Honasan shared the 7-9 ranking; Escudero is 10th; Angara is 11th; Cayetano is 12th; Pichay is 13th; Pimentel is 14th; Arroyo and Vicente Magsaysay (TU) ranked 15th-16th while Antonio Trillanes ranked 17th-18th with former senator John Osmena.
The SWS survey was conducted May 2 to 4, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 registered voters “divided into random samples of 300 each in the fore areas of Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.”