DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 April) — Presidential bet Rodrigo Duterte and his running mate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano led in the off-campus electoral survey of the Ateneo De Davao University (ADDU).
The survey, conducted from April 4-16 among 1,178 respondents with biometrics as voters in the city’s three districts, had Duterte leading the pack with 87.5 percent.
Senator Grace Poe got 1.4 percent, Vice President Jejomar Binay 0.9 percent, administration bet Mar Roxas, Senator Miriam Santiago 0.4 percent, and 6.2 percent still undecided.
For the candidates for vice president, Cayetano got 51.8 percent, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 18.7 percent, Senator Francis Escudero 6.3 percent, Rep. Leni Robredo 3.7 percent, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV 0.9 percent, Senator Gringo Honasan 0.5 percent, and 15.6 percent still undecided.
Among the senatorial candidates, Juan Miguel Zubiri topped the survey with 39.4 percent.
Joining Zubiri in the top six choices are: Senator Panfilo Lacson got 31.5 percent, Senator Sergio Osmeña 30.1 percent, Senator Frank Drilon 29.1 percent, Risa Hontiveros 27.5 percent, and Senator Vicente Sotto 27.2 percent.
“While majority of the voting population rely heavily on television as their primary source of information (86.6 percent), half of the younger voters claimed that they also sourced out their knowledge of this year’s election from social media (49.7 percent vs. only 18.9 percent of the older voters),” the briefer added.
Also, 12.5 percent of the young voting age got information from internet news sites, as opposed to only 4.1 percent of those coming from a much older group.
“The use of radio factored in rather highly for older group at 41.3 percent, while it is only 32.1 percent for their younger counterparts,” it said.
Political analyst and ADDU instructor Ramon Beleno III said Duterte maintained his lead amid criticisms over the “rape joke” concerning an Australian missionary in both local and national surveys because other candidates are also facing controversies.
“We’re expecting na bumababa sya because titirahin sya ng mga kalaban but luckily ang mga kalaban nya are not performing well,” he said.
Beleno said presidential bets who failed to clarify themselves on the issues against them in the debate held in Pangasinan last Sunday might affect their current standing.
He said that Binay, for example, did not explain the corruption charges against him although he had the chance to do so.
“Some instances may ibang kandidato hindi nag-grab ng opportunity. If I were the candidate, dapat lahat ng tanong at opportunity dapat gi-grab nila dahil ito na yung last and final debate and the last na magkikita-kita sila. Definitely, most of the candidates may opportunity to defend themselves. Si Mar and Poe got the opportunity to state their platforms clearer. Defensor gave a very good fight,” he said.
He said Duterte’s rivals may form alliances against the Davao City mayor as the front runner to pull him down in the days leading to May 9 elections.
“Si Grace Poe and may chance na makatalo kay Dutere. (His rivals might) form alliances and go against Duterte… We are expecting that and that’s natural na mag-form ng alliances,” he said. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
