AT THIS point, it is almost difficult to think that the race to the Palace is a closed deal between the country’s voters and Sen. Noynoy Aquino. As the recent SWS survey seems to show, the son of Ninoy and Cory should already be planning how to manage his presidency.

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But a friend commented that, if he recalls it correctly, the first time Noynoy’s presidential candidacy was bruited about, the positive response came from about 70 percent of our country’s potential voters. I could not quite confirm this because my immediate thought then was that Senator Noynoy is still not ripe for the presidency. Perhaps, after one or two presidential elections he would be in the best position to run for the post his mother once occupied.

But there was some kind of unusual reflex emotional reaction to the death of President Cory, and her children could not seem to parry the tidal wave of demand for Noynoy to be a candidate. And thus, the first reported survey had Noynoy on top of the list, and remained so up to this time.

But I am interested in the “quantity” of those positive responses. Was Noynoy’s initial rating in the seventies, or at least a bit better than current sixties? If it was, then there is some kind of change in the people’s initial response, something like them having second thoughts. It is possible then that as the presidential campaign progresses towards May, Noynoy Aquino’s rating might still continue to slide down.

This should be what the second, third, and fourth presidential aspirants in the list should pray for to happen. Meaning, the three to five others in the list after Noynoy in the SWS hierarchal list should not lose heart. Anything can still happen between now and the day of elections.

I can say this, of course, because right now I still haven’t made my choice on who among them I should vote for. But my list is narrowing down to three, and before the presidential aspirants would file their COCs in November, I should already be able to make my choice, and keep it close to my kin’s heart and mine.

What is important to me is the belief that our electorate this time around should not be carried away by just a candidate’s popularity alone, but should also consider his or her integrity, managerial skill and decisiveness, along with a determination to truly put this country on the road to genuine economic growth.

This, so I can feel at ease that my grand children who are all in various steps of the educational stair case can reach the top with the assurance to see a new generation grow up. A fatherhood statement, no doubt, but let it be.