Villar overtakes Noynoy in The Center survey

Sen. Manny Villar Jr. (Nacionalista Party) has overtaken his colleague, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III (Liberal Party), in the presidential race, according to a survey conducted by the political monitoring organization Issues and Advocacy Center. A report aired over GMA News' "24 Oras" said of the 2,400 respondents, 28 percent chose Villar while 26 percent picked Aquino. The survey was conducted from March 3 to 10. Ed Malay, director of the Issue and Advocacy Center – or more commonly known as The Center – said Villar and Aquino could be considered as statistically tied since the survey has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. Malay said Villar’s numerous advertisements in TV, radio and print contributed a lot to his surge in the ratings. “Ang nagpapatakbo ng campaign ay media, not in a sense na ang media ay kasama sa kampanya kundi yung media ang ginagamit bilang plataporma para isulong yung kampanya ng mga kandidato," he said.

Trailing the front-runners were former President Joseph Estrada (Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino) with 18 percent; Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (Lakas-Kampi-CMD), 14 percent; Sen. Richard Gordon (Bagumbayan), nine percent; evangelist Eddie Villanueva (Bangon Pilipinas), two percent; and JC de los Reyes (Ang Kapatiran), 0.5 percent. Independent candidates Sen. Ana Consuelo “Jamby" Madrigal and environmentalist Nicanor Perlas both got zero percent. Villar welcomed the survey result. In a text message to GMA News, the NP presidential bet said the survey outcome serves as an inspiration for him to further reach various parts of the country during the campaign period. "Nagpapasalamat ako sa patuloy na suporta at tiwala ng ating mga kababayan sa ating kakayahang mamumo sa ating bansa (I thank the people for their continued trust and support in my ability to lead the nation)," he said. Aquino’s camp, meanwhile, chose to keep mum and said they would just wait for the results of Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia surveys. – Aie Balagtas See/KBK, GMANews.TV