DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Mayor Rodrigo Duterte surged on top of a commissioned survey for presidential candidates in the 2016 elections.
In the survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), Duterte gained 38 percent of the 1,200 respondents from all over the country with Vice President Jejomar Binay and Sen. Grace Poe tied at 21 percent.
Administration candidate Manuel Roxas II trailed at 15 percent with Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago at fourth place with 4 percent.
In the vice presidential race, the same survey revealed Sen. Francis Escudero garnered 30 percent, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at 24 percent; Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, 21 percent; Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo at 12 percent; Sen. Gregorio Honasan at 6 percent; Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV at 5 percent with the undecided at 1 percent.
The survey was conducted from Nov. 26 to 28 during which Duterte filed his certificate of candidacy, making official his run for the presidency after several weeks of giving mixed signals as to his political plans.
Those undecided in the survey comprised at least one percent of the total of 1,200 respondents with 300 each taken from Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The SWS has taken a separate survey without mentioning Duterte.
In that survey, Poe ranked first with 33 percent, Binay at 28 percent, Roxas at 20 percent and Santiago 11 percent with the undecided at 7 percent.
On the other hand, the SWS survey mentioning Duterte revealed the Davao mayor garnered 48 percent in the National Capital Region (NCR); 26 percent for the rest of Luzon; 44 percent in the Visayas region and 50 percent in Mindanao.
Duterte was also highest with 62 percent among the candidates in the economic classes, ABC, 37 percent in Class D and 32 percent in Class E.
Binay had 18 percent in the NCR, 27 percent in Luzon, 14 percent in the Visayas region and 18 percent in Mindanao.
Binay was also 16 percent in economic class ABC, 21 percent in class D and 26 percent in class E
Meanwhile, Poe garnered 22 percent, 28 percent, 16 percent and 13 percent, respectively in NCR, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Poe had 13 percent in economic class ABC, 22 percent in Class D, 20 percent in Class E.
Roxas got 7 percent in NCR, 14 percent in Luzon, 20 percent in Visayas and 16 in Mindanao.
And by economic classes, Roxas got 6 percent for ABC, 15 percent for D, and 7 percent for E.
Santiago, on the other hand, got 3 percent, 5 percent, 5 percent and 2 percent, respectively for NCR, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Santiago also had 1 percent of the economic class ABC, 4 percent for D and 5 percent for E.
The error margins for the SWS survey was at +3 percent for the entire country and 6 percent each for NCR, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.