SWS: De Castro, Villar neck-and-neck in latest presidential survey

MANILA, Philippines - If presidential elections were held today, it would be a tight race between two friends - Vice-President Noli de Castro and Senate President Manuel Villar - based on the result of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey in June, a copy of which was obtained by GMANews.TV. According to the survey commissioned by a political party, which was separate from the presidential survey conducted by a business newspaper, De Castro had 26 percent preference and Villar, 22 percent. Meanwhile, Sen. Loren Legarda had 12 percent, Sen. Francis Escudero got 11 percent, with Sen.Panfilo Lacson and former president Joseph Estrada both tied with 9 percent each. Sen. Manuel Roxas had 7 percent followed by Sen. Richard Gordon with 0.8 percent. The SWS survey was the latest presidential survey conducted by the polling firm for the 2010 elections. Conducted from June 27-30, the SWS second quarter survey showed Villar leading De Castro in two major regions. The two are close peers in the power bloc Wednesday Group of the Senate where De Castro once served as senator before becoming vice president. Villar dominated the National Capital Region (NCR) with 23 percent saying they will vote for the Senate President compared to De Castro’s 11 percent. The Senate President also had 24 percent preference in Luzon and De Castro, 22 percent. De Castro, however, topped the Visayas (27 percent) and Mindanao (41 percent). Villar, on the other hand, got 23 percent in Visayas and 17 percent in Mindanao. However, Villar drew more support from the urban areas with 22 percent voting for him compared to De Castro’s 19 percent. It’s the reverse in the rural areas with De Castro getting 32 percent preference to Villar’s 22 percent. In the economic classes, Villar got the highest preference from the D segment with 24 percent to De Castro’s 22 percent. The ABC and E classes went for De Castro, 27 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Villar posted 13 percent in the ABC segment and 21 in the E classes. Respondents were made to pick their choices from a list of names arranged in alphabetical order. In its last presidential survey conducted between November 30 and December 3, 2007, SWS reported that de Castro was leading the pack of presidentiables with 30 percent closely followed by Villar who got 27 percent. Legarda had 23 percent while Roxas got 20 percent. Escudero then had 15 percent of the respondents, Lacson 13 percent, former President Estrada 9 percent, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago 4 percent, Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th 3 percent, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano 3 percent, Sen. Francis Pangilinan 2 percent, and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada 2 percent. The SWS survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao with the question: “Kung ngayon gaganapin ang eleksyon sa pagka-presidente, sino sa mga sumusunod ang inyong pipiliin?" Unlike in the earlier SWS “top recommendees" survey, which came out recently, names were provided to prompt respondents. The same polling firm earlier released its top recommendees survey, which showed that de Castro, Legarda and Villar as the top choices of the people to succeed President Arroyo after she steps down from office in 2010. The survey item on the choices of presidential hopefuls is commissioned. - GMANews.TV