Poll: Nancy Binay, JV Ejercito among top 5 senatorial bets

MANILA (Updated) -- Reelectionist senators continue to dominate the list of possible winners in the May polls but the son and daughter of two influential leaders of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) are now among the top five candidates, results of the latest Pulse Asia survey show.

The results of the survey conducted from January 19 to 30, 2013, showed re-electionist senators topping the list with Loren Legarda (58 percent) and Francis Escudero (54.3 percent) sharing the first and second places, while Alan Peter Cayetano landed in third place (48.9 percent).

Nancy Binay, daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay, got 43.6 percent of support from a sample of 1,800 registered voters aged 18 years old and above. She is tied for fourth to ninth place with San Juan City Representative JV Ejercito, son of former President Joseph Estrada, who got 43.5 percent.

Screenshot of the Pulse Asia survey

Vice President Binay and former President Estrada, who is running for mayor of Manila, formed UNA, which is a coalition of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan and Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, for the midterm elections in May.

Ranked fourth to 12th are Senator Antonio Trillanes IV (41.1 percent), Senator Aquilino Pimentel III (40.7 percent), Cagayan Representative Juan Ponce Enrile Jr. (40.4 percent) and former Las Piñas Representative Cynthia Villar (39.1 percent).

Enrile is the son and namesake of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, also a leader of UNA, while Villar is the wife of incumbent Senator Manny Villar.

Completing the top 12 are former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri (37.6 percent), Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo Angara (37.1 percent), and Senator Gringo Honasan (36.8 percent), who all share sixth to 12th places.

With less than four months before the polls, only about a third of the Filipino electorate has a complete senatorial slate (34 percent) while 8.6 percent does not express support for any of those running for senator, the latest Pulsa Asia survey said.

Binay only ranked 12th in a separate survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations last month, which was also dominated by Legarda, Escudero and Cayetano.

Most of the top 12 senatorial bets in the latest Pulse Asia poll were also found to be the possible winners in that SWS survey with the exception of Grace Poe.

Poe shared the 10th to 11th place with Trillanes in the SWS survey, but was only ranked 13th to 16th in the Pulse Asia poll, together with former Senator Richard Gordon.

Of the 12 possible winners in the Pulse Asia survey, four are from UNA, five from the Liberal Party coalition or the so-called Team PNoy, and two are common candidates of the two major political parties.

In a statement, Team PNoy campaign manager Senator Franklin Drilon said the survey result showed public confidence in the administration slate.

"It is beyond doubt that President Aquino's endorsement of his senatorial team is very effective and has been taken positively by the people who clearly manifest support for the team the President has chosen to help him carry out his reforms in the next three years," he said.

As for other Team PNoy bets who did not make it to the top 12, Drilon is confident that once they get the needed exposure during the campaign period, "they will catch up."

UNA has yet to issue a statement as of this posting Friday. (Emmanuel Louis Bacani/Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)